LBC(Liquid Based Cytology) in Dehradun

What is a LBC(Liquid Based Cytology)?

Liquid-based cytology is a method rather than a different test. In a conventional Pap smear, cells collected from the cervix are smeared directly onto a glass slide, where blood, mucus and inflammatory cells frequently obscure them and cells can dry out or clump, producing a proportion of samples reported as unsatisfactory and needing to be repeated. In LBC, the collecting brush is rinsed into a vial of preservative fluid, and the laboratory produces a clean, evenly distributed monolayer from that suspension. The practical advantages are fewer unsatisfactory samples, better preserved cells, and, importantly, that the same vial can be used for an HPV test without asking the woman to return. The purpose is unchanged: to detect changes in cervical cells that precede cancer by ten to fifteen years and are entirely treatable at that stage. Cervical cancer is one of the most preventable cancers there is, and India carries a substantial share of the global burden largely because screening coverage is low rather than because the disease is hard to catch.

Why take this test?

LBC is advised as routine cervical screening for women from around the early twenties, at the interval your gynaecologist sets, continuing into the sixties. It is offered to women who feel entirely well, and that is the point: waiting for symptoms defeats screening, because bleeding between periods, bleeding after intercourse, bleeding after menopause or a persistent unusual discharge may mean disease is already established, and those symptoms need a gynaecologist promptly rather than a routine smear. It is also used to follow up a previous abnormal result. From around age 30 it is often combined with an HPV test on the same sample, which allows a longer interval when both are negative. Vaccination against HPV reduces risk substantially but does not remove the need to screen. The sample is collected by a clinician during a brief internal examination and cannot be self-collected at home.

• Routine cervical screening from around the early twenties
• Continuing regular screening through to around age 65
• Following up a previous abnormal smear
• Often combined with an HPV test from age 30
• After HPV vaccination, which reduces but does not remove the need
• Not a substitute for prompt assessment of abnormal bleeding

FAQs: LBC(Liquid Based Cytology) in Dehradun