*2.1. Study Population and Specimen Collection*

From 2017 to 2021, cervical smears were obtained from a sample of 365 female patients (age 20–74 years) with normal and abnormal results of cervical cytology who were undergoing gynecological exams at the Department of Gynecology, Community Health Centre

Novi Sad, Serbia, and the Oncology Institute of Vojvodina, Serbia. All of the women in the study did not receive any prior treatment for cervical dysplasia or cancer, and all were unvaccinated against HPV infection. The samples were collected using the ThinPrep Pap test (Hologic Inc., Marlborough, MA, USA) according to the manufacturer's instructions and sent for further analyses to the Center of Virology, Institute of Public Health of Vojvodina, Novi Sad, Republic of Serbia.

The classification of cytological findings was performed according to the criteria of the Bethesda System 2014. It was categorized into negative for intraepithelial lesion or malignancy (NILM), atypical squamous cells of unknown significance (ASCUS), low-grade squamous intraepithelial lesions (LSIL), and high-grade squamous intraepithelial lesions (HSIL). All of the women enrolled in the study were informed about the research objective and signed an informed written consent form. The study protocol was reviewed and approved by the Medical Ethical Committee of the Institute of Public Health of Vojvodina, Novi Sad, Serbia (approval number: 01-252/3).
