Background: Cancer of uterine cervix is a leading cause of mortality and morbidity among women worldwide Papanicolaou cytological (Pap) test is, in many respects, the ideal screening test. Cervical cancer has a defined premalignant phase of many years, which allows repeated tests to significantly reduce the impact of individual false negative test results. Cervical cytology is inexpensive and readily accepted among Indian women.This is a retrospective study aimed to evaluate all previously conducted cervical smears examined at a teaching tertiary hospital during a two and half year period to find out the prevalence of abnormal pap smears. Materials & Methods: Detailed clinical data and Pap smear cytology reports were obtained from June 2014 to December 2016 and data noted in a structured Performa. All the smears were reported as per the revised 2014 Bethesda system. Prevalence of epithelial abnormalities was calculated in percentages. Results: Out of 1671 cases, 1635(97.8%) were negative for intraepithelial lesion/malignancy, 36 cases (2.15%) were positive for intraepithelial lesion. Conclusion: Pap smear provides supportive evidence as a tool for screening for cervical cancer. There is a need to increase the awareness among women to know the utility of this test to prevent precancerous changes in cervix can be detected before they progress to frank malignancy.

Keywords: Cervical Cancer; Screening; Bethesda System; Pap Smear; Papanicolaou.