BACKGROUND Cervical cancer is one of the most common forms of cancer. In India it is the second most common cancer after breast carcinoma. PAP smear is the best screening method to reveal spectrum of lesions in cervix ranging from inflammatory to the neoplastic process. Because of easy accessibility of cervix, cervical screening is helpful for ready diagnosis of 90 % to 96 % cytological abnormalities even in the pre-invasive stage. We wanted to evaluate the importance of PAP smear examination as a preliminary method accommodating histopathology and assess the spectrum of lesions. METHODS The study was done to identify the target age groups for the early detection of cancerous cervix by PAP smear examination. The study was done on patients who attended government general hospital (GGH), Ongole, from January 2018 to December 2019. Lesions were categorized based on 2014 Bethesda system as negative intraepithelial lesion for malignancy (NILM) / Inflammatory, benign, premalignant, and malignant. The clinicocytological and histopathological examination (HPE) of cervical biopsy of corresponding smears were compared and analysed in the present study. RESULTS Of the 584 cases studied by PAP smear examination, maximum number of patients were between 21 and 60 years of age. Maximum number of patients came with the complaint of white discharge. Highest number of cases reported were NILM / inflammatory (54.18 %), followed by atypical squamous cells of undetermined significance (ASCUS) (20.68 %), high-grade squamous intraepithelial lesion (HSIL) (13.84 %), squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) (6.84 %), low-grade squamous intraepithelial lesion (LSIL) (1.65 %), metaplasia (1.19 %), atypical glandular cells of undetermined significance (AGUS) (0.51 %), adenocarcinoma (0.17 %). CONCLUSIONS Cervical PAP smear screening is simple, cost effective and reliable method for early detection of cervical cancers. Classification of lesions based on Bethesda terminology is most informative and useful. Correlation of PAP smear cervical cytology with gold standard HPE provides greater efficacy in diagnosis. KEYWORDS PAP smears, NILM, ASCUS, AGUS, LSIL, HSIL