Abstract

Anogenital human papillomavirus (HPV)-infection is common in HIV-infected men who have sex with men (HIV+MSM). These patients have a strongly increased risk of HPV-induced anal cancer and its precursor lesion, anal intraepithelial neoplasia (AIN), and a moderately increased risk for penile cancer. Only limited data exist on penile intraepithelial neoplasia (PIN) in HIV+MSM. We determined the prevalence and evaluated the virologic characteristics of PIN and AIN in 263 HIV+MSM. In case of histologically confirmed PIN (and AIN), HPV-typing, HPV-DNA load determination, and immunohistochemical staining for p16(INK4a) were performed. PIN was detected in 11 (4.2%) and AIN in 156 (59.3%) patients. Ten PIN patients also had AIN within the observation period. Four clinical types of PINs could be distinguished. High-risk-alpha-HPV-DNA was found in 10 PIN lesions, with HPV16 being the most frequent type. Infections with multiple HPV-types were common. All high-grade lesions had high-risk-HPV-DNA-loads > or = 1 HPV-copy/beta-globin-gene-copy. Cutaneous beta-HPVs were found in PIN and AIN, but beta-HPV-DNA loads were very low, irrespective of the histological grade. p16(INK4a) Expression was detectable in all PIN lesions and correlated both with the histological grade and with high-risk HPV-DNA loads. In view of the PIN prevalence found in our study, all HIV+MSM should be screened for PIN in addition to AIN screening.