Objective to evaluate the value of SOX1 and PAX1 gene methylation detection in the secondary triage of high-grade cervical lesions.Methods Exfoliated cervical cells were collected from 122 patients tested positive for human papilloma virus(HPV)and subjected To thin-prep cytologic test(TCT)and SOX1/PAX1 gene methylation tests.Results the HPV test combined with TCT showed the sensitivity of 95.24%and the specificity of 23.75%for detecting cervical intraepithelial neoplasia(CIN)grade 2 and above(CIN2+).After the addition of the SOX1/PAX1 gene methylation detection in secondary triage,the sensitivity for detecting CIN2+was 83.33%,which had no statistically significant difference from the sensitivity of TCT combined with HPV test(P=0.078).However,the specificity reached 77.50%,which was significantly higher than that of HPV test combined with TCT(P<0.001).the SOX1/PAX1 gene methylation level in the CIN2+group was higher than those in the normal cervical tissue and the CIN1 group(P<0.001).the cut-off values of SOX1 and PAX1 gene methylation for CIN2+detection were-11.81 and-11.98,respectively.Conclusion Adding the detection of SOX1/PAX1 gene methylation in secondary triage significantly improves the efficiency and accuracy of CIN2+detection。