Objective: To assess the effectiveness of cryotherapy treatment delivered by general practitioners in primary care settings, as part of a screen-and-treat approach for cervical cancer prevention.
Method: Women aged between 25 and 49 years residing in San Martin, Peru, who were positive on visual inspection screening were treated, if eligible, with cryotherapy following biopsy. At 12 months post cryotherapy treatment the participants were evaluated for treatment effectiveness and examined by visual inspection and Papanicolaou test and, if positive, referred to a gynecologist for colposcopy and biopsy.
Results: Cryotherapy treatment was performed for 1398 women; of these, 531 (38%) had a histology result of cervical intraepithelial neoplasia (CIN). Cryotherapy effectively cured CIN in 418 (88%) women, including 49 (70%) women with a baseline diagnosis of CIN 3.
Conclusion: Cryotherapy is an effective treatment for cervical precancerous lesions; it can easily be administered by general practitioners in primary care settings following visual inspection screening.