Correlation between Load of HPV 16 DNA in Cervical Cancer and HPV 16 DNA in Lymph Nodes

OBJECTIVE To determine the association between viral load of human papillomavirus 16 (HPV16) DNA in the primary focus of cervical carcinoma and HPV16 DNA in pelvic lymph nodes.METHODS The HPV16 DNA load was measured by fluorescent quantitation polymerase chain reaction (FQ-PCR) in 17 primary foci. HPV16 DNA was detected by polymerase chain reaction (PCR) using HPV16 type-specific primers in 296 pelvic lymph nodes which were from 17 cases of cervical cancer.RESULTS The viral load of HPV16 DNA showed statistically significant differences between tumors with a diameter of<4 cm and ≥ 4 cm (P < 0.05). Seven of 17 cervical cancer cases had HPV16 DNA positive lymph nodes, designated as the positive group, while the remaining 10 without positive lymph nodes was designated the negative group. The average load of HPV16 DNA showed no significant difference between the 2 groups ( P > 0.05). The load of HPV16 in the primary lesion was not associated with that in the lymph nodes. There were 38 HPV16 DNA positive nodes in the total 296 nodes. The rate of positivity of HPV16 DNA in lymph nodes showed statistically significant differences in consideration of maximum tumor diameter, tumor differentiation, histologic type, depth of myometial infiltration and the metastatic status of the nodes, respectively ( P < 0.05).CONCLUSION Viral load of HPV16 in the primary cancer focus correlated with the quantity of tumor cells in the primary focus but not with the existence of HPV DNA positive lymph nodes. Detection of HPV DNA may help to fi nd the early metastases that cannot be evaluated histopathologically, but the prognostic value of HPV positive lymph nodes needs further examination

Prevalence of human papillomavirus and Epstein-Barr virus DNA in penile cancer cases from Brazil

Penile cancer is a potentially mutilating disease. Although its occurrence is relatively rare worldwide, penile cancer rates can be high in developing countries. A few studies have been conducted on the involvement of human papillomavirus (HPV) in penile carcinoma, which have found HPV present in 30-70% of penile malignant lesions, with a higher prevalence of HPV 16 and 18. It has been assumed that cofactors, such as Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) infections, may play a role in the progression of penile neoplasia. The aim of this study was to determine HPV and EBV prevalence in 135 penile malignant lesions from Brazilian men through the use of MY09/11 polymerase chain reaction (PCR), type-specific PCR and restriction fragment length polymorphism analysis. HPV prevalence among the men tested was 60.7%. Of the men who tested positive, 27 presented with HPV 16 (29.7%), five with HPV 18 (5.5%), 21 with HPV 45 (23.1%) and nine with HPV 6 (9.9%). Seven mixed infections were detected (9.2%), while 11 cases remained untyped (13.4%). Regarding EBV positivity, 46.7% of the samples contained EBV DNA with EBV-1 as the most prevalent type (74.6%). More than 23% of the men were co-infected with both HPV and EBV, while 35% presented exclusively with HPV DNA and 20% presented only with EBV DNA. Penile carcinoma aetiology has not been fully elucidated and the role of HPV and EBV infections individually or synergistically is still controversial. Hence, more studies are needed to determine their possible role in carcinogenesis