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Guidance

Cervical screening: histopathology reporting handbook

This document explains procedures for the reporting of cervical biopsies in the NHS cervical screening programme.

Updates to this page

From:
NHS England
Published:
1 September 2012
Last updated:
27 September 2024
Show all updates

  1. In the details, changed 'originally published by Public Health England' to 'previously published by Public Health England'.

  2. Added clarification that publication was originally published by Public Health England.

  3. In line with the modification to the colposcopy guidance, clarified that the discussion of moderate referrals with CIN1 at the MDT was discretionary and do not count as a 2-grade discrepancy.

  4. Clarified the required maintenance of clinical skill for all pathologists reporting cervical screening programme histopathology

  5. Updated in line with current World Health Organisation 2020 classification of tumours (female genital tumours). Updated the main requirements for MDT meetings to ensure they tally with the programme and colposcopy management guidance. Added new NHS CSP standards for turnaround times.

  6. Added section 5.7 - high grade CIN extending to margins

  7. Added 'Cervical Screening Programme: histopathology reporting handbook' and removed outdated document.

  8. First published.

Documents

Cervical Screening Programme: histopathology reporting handbook

Ref: PHE publications gateway number: GW-1223

HTML

List of SNOMED codes for cervical histopathology

Ref: PHE publications gateway number: GW-1223

PDF, 426 KB, 6 pages

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Details

This publication sets out a comprehensive approach to histopathology reporting for healthcare professionals working in the NHS cervical screening programme.

It includes information about:

  • terminology and coding classifications
  • the handling and preparation of specimens sent for histological examination
  • standardised report content
  • reporting cervical biopsies
  • interpretation of p16 immunohistochemistry (IHC) in cervical histopathology reporting
  • histopathology and cytology correlation
  • multidisciplinary team (MDT) working
  • quality assurance and audit in histopathology

This publication was previously published by Public Health England, which closed on 30 September 2021.

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