If i had an abnormal pap with severe dysplasia level 3, does it mean that i have cervical cancer?

No.: You probably have cervical intraepithelial neoplasia 3 (cin3) which is a precursor to cervical cancer. Cin3 means the cells in your cervix are growing abnormally in greater than two-thirds the thickness of the mucus membrane of the cervix. If it is untreated, the estimated risk of progressing to cervical cancer is 12-40%.

Not necessarily.: This is an old term that correlates with what is now known as cin3 (or cervical intraepithelial neoplasia, grade 3), which is not technically cervical cancer but rather a precursor. Some can spontaneously regress, but some can progress to frank cancer. As such, treatment options can include anything from doing nothing to actually removing the offending lesion(s).

No: The pap smear is just a screening device that samples cells from a scraping. A more precise diagnosis requires a colposcopy and biopsy to look at a piece of tissue under the microscope. Severe dysplasia is a precancer, though if the pap shows severe dysplasia, there is a chance of invasive cancer so further evaluation is important.

Possibly: The more advanced the dysplasia (abnormal cells) the greater the possibility of finding cancer in your cervix. The next stage of your evaluation is to obtain a colposcopy with biopsies. These 3-dimensional pathology specimens will then be evaluated to see if the disease has progressed to actual cancer. The good news is in most cases it takes 10-15 years from onset of dysplasia to become cancer.

Close: Severe dysplasia is the diagnosis for tissue that is markedly abnormal, but with still some features of normal tissue evident on biopsy - some cells would have some degree of normalcy. A cancer would have no normal tissue development apparent on the biopsy - all of the cells would be abnormal.