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The great majority of cervical neoplasia begin in the transformation zone between the squamous and the columnar epithelium, i.e. within the area in which metaplasia takes place. This process, both normal and atypical, can be studied colposcopically. Colposcopy increases the diagnostic accuracy and therapeutic success in cervical neoplasia as it is the only method that permits a topographical study of cervical lesions, and indicates the location of neoplastic epithelial proliferation.

There is an urgent need to approach the evaluation and classification of cervical intraepithelial lesions and their cytopathological correlations as specifically as possible. Preinvasive cancer (differentiated and undifferentiated carcinoma in situ) of the uterine cervix, the most advanced stages of cervical intraepithelial neoplasia, should be clearly defined and described, and the diagnostic and therapeutic management including the follow-up of the patients outlined in detail. The present results, based on a material of 524 cone biopsies, clearly indicate the existence of two different types of probably virus-induced epithelial lesions in the two histopathologic groups of preinvasive cancer of uterine cervix.