The Bethesda System for Reporting Cervical/Vaginal Cytologic Diagnoses: Definitions, Criteria, and Explanatory Notes for Terminology and Specimen Adequacy

THE BETHESDA SYSTEM FOR REPORTING CERVICAL/VAGINAL CYTOLOGIC DIAGNOSES was developed at a National Cancer Institute sponsored workshop in December 1988 to provide uniform diagnostic terminology that would facilitate communication between the laboratory and the clinician. The format of The Bethesda System report includes a descriptive diagnosis and an evaluation of specimen adequacy. The Bethesda System we designed to be flexible in order that it could evolve in response to changing needs in cervical cancer screening as well as to advances in the field of cervical pathology. Subsequently, a second workshop was held in April 1991 to evaluate the impact of The Bethesda System in actual practice and to amend and modify it where needed. One of the major recommendations of this second meeting was that precise criteria should be formulated for both the diagnositic terms and for the descriptors of specimen adequacy. That is the intended purpose of this report.