Detection of human papillomavirus DNA in malignant lesions from Chinese women with carcinomas of the upper genital tract.
OBJECTIVE
The aim of this study was to determine the prevalence of high-risk oncogenic human papillomaviruses (HPVs) in malignant lesions from Hong Kong Chinese women with carcinomas of the upper genital tract.


METHODS
The presence of high-risk HPVs in 55 cases of endometrial adenocarcinomas and 60 cases of primary epithelial ovarian cancers was detected by polymerase chain reaction (PCR) using consensus primers complementary to late 1 (L1) gene of the genital HPVs. Amplified PCR products were verified and typed by Southern blot analysis using (32)P-labeled DNA probes prepared from cloned HPV-16 and -18 plasmids. To confirm the presence of high-risk HPV types in the tumor tissues, PCR amplification using HPV type 16- and 18-specific primers for part of the E6 gene were also carried out.


RESULTS
While HPV-18 was not detected, HPV-16 DNA sequences were identified in 5 (9.1%) of the 55 studied endometrial carcinoma samples. Of the 5 HPV-16-positive cases, there were 4 stage I, and 1 stage II endometrial cancer. In addition, 6 (10%) of the 60 epithelial ovarian carcinomas were positive for high-risk HPVs, which included 5 cases with HPV-16 and 1 case with HPV-18. Clinical staging revealed that 5 of the 6 HPV-positive cases were stage I and the remaining case was stage III ovarian cancer. Histology of the 6 HPV-positive cases showed that there were 1 case of clear-cell adenocarcinoma, 1 case of mucinous cystadenocarcinoma, and 4 cases of mucinous tumor of borderline malignancy. No other HPV types were detected.


CONCLUSIONS
High-risk HPV was detected in approximately 10% of the tumor samples from women with upper genital tract carcinomas. As compared to the high positive rate of HPV infections in cervical cancer, it appears that HPV infection plays a relatively minor role in the pathogenesis of endometrial and ovarian carcinomas.
Ip
S M
SM
Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Faculty of Medicine, The University of Hong Kong, Queen Mary Hospital, Pokfulam Road, Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, China.
Wong
L C
LC
Xu
C M
CM
Cheung
A N Y
AN
Tsang
P C K
PC
Ngan
H Y S
HY
D000230:Adenocarcinoma / Q000821:virology*; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D036022:Capsid Proteins; D016384:Consensus Sequence; D017931:DNA Primers; D004279:DNA, Viral / Q000032:analysis* / Q000235:genetics; D004268:DNA-Binding Proteins; D016889:Endometrial Neoplasms / Q000821:virology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008875:Middle Aged; D009856:Oncogene Proteins, Viral / Q000235:genetics; D010051:Ovarian Neoplasms / Q000821:virology*; D027383:Papillomaviridae / Q000235:genetics*; D030361:Papillomavirus Infections / Q000150:complications / Q000821:virology; D016133:Polymerase Chain Reaction; D012097:Repressor Proteins; D014412:Tumor Virus Infections / Q000150:complications / Q000821:virology
D036022:Capsid Proteins; D017931:DNA Primers; D004279:DNA, Viral; D004268:DNA-Binding Proteins; C068651:E6 protein, Human papillomavirus type 16; C052603:E6 protein, Human papillomavirus type 18; D009856:Oncogene Proteins, Viral; D012097:Repressor Proteins; C063317:L1 protein, Human papillomavirus type 16