Abstract

OBJECTIVES:

The prevalent genotypes of human papillomavirus (HPV) infection and the significance of HPV16 integration in cervical precancerous lesions and cancer of Chinese women were investigated.

METHODS:

HPV genotyping and HPV16 integration status were studied on 100 normal cervical cytology, 90 low-grade (LSIL) and 99 high-grade squamous intraepithelial lesions (HSIL), as well as 96 cervical cancer biopsies using DNA sequencing and quantitative real-time PCR.

RESULTS:

HPV were detected in 12.0% of normal cytology, 93.3% of LSIL, 90.9% of HSIL and 89.6% of cervical cancer samples. High-risk HPV16, 18, 58, 52, 33 and 31 were the 6 major HPV types observed, composing 45.6, 82.8 and 85.4% of HPV infections in LSIL, HSIL and cervical cancers, respectively, with a significant rising trend in increasing disease severity (p = 0.002). While HPV16 and HPV18 were most commonly found in cervical cancer, HPV58 was prevalently observed in cervical precancerous lesions, and its frequency decreased with increased disease severity. Among HPV16-positive patients, 40.0% of LSIL, 88.9% of HSIL and 86.4% of cancer cases had HPV16 integration. The frequency of the integrated form of HPV16 significantly increased with the severity of the disease.

CONCLUSIONS:

Our results demonstrated that high-risk HPV infection and viral DNA integration were in progressive frequency from low-grade cervical precancerous lesions to cancer. HPV16 integration status had the potential to be a marker for cancer risk assessment of cervical precancerous lesions.

(c) 2008 S. Karger AG, Basel