Association of human papillomavirus and Chlamydia infections with incidence cervical neoplasia.
Incidence cervical neoplasia is defined as disease that becomes manifest during a given period of observation. Association with preceding genital infections having characteristic cytologic findings would seem to be more likely for incidence than for prevalence cases since the usual long latency period of carcinoma in situ (CIS) could allow resolution of infectious processes. For this reason, it was elected to examine the preceding Papanicolaou smears from patients with tissue-confirmed incidence CIS or invasive epidermoid carcinoma. There were 67 women with biopsy-proven CIS or invasive carcinoma of the uterine cervix identified in the files of the University of New Mexico Cytopathology Laboratory from 1966 to 1982 who had two initial negative smears as well as smears at intervals of three years or less. All cytologic smears prior to tissue diagnosis were rescreened for confirmation of cytologic atypia or its absence as well as for morphologic evidence of human papillomavirus (HPV) or chlamydial infections. Control cases matched for age, gravidity, ethnicity and number of smears were reviewed in an identical manner. Koilocytes indicative of HPV infection were found in 17 index cases (25%) and 5 controls (7%) (p = 0.005). Chlamydial infections were identified in 18 index cases (27%) and in 4 controls (6%) (p = 0.001). The times required for conversion from smear negativity to malignancy were determined for each incidence case. The results showed great variability but suggest that the progression to malignancy is not hastened in women with antecedent HPV or chlamydial infections. Our results indicate that the presence of koilocytes and/or chlamydial inclusions in cervical smears serves to identify a group of women with a significantly increased risk of developing cervical carcinoma, even in the absence of concurrent dysplasia.
D002277:Carcinoma / Q000209:etiology*; D002278:Carcinoma in Situ / Q000209:etiology*; D002690:Chlamydia Infections / Q000150:complications*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D027383:Papillomaviridae; D013997:Time Factors; D014412:Tumor Virus Infections / Q000150:complications* / Q000473:pathology; D002583:Uterine Cervical Neoplasms / Q000209:etiology*