Typing of human papillomavirus in Zimbabwean patients with invasive cancer of the uterine cervix.
BACKGROUND
Cervical cancer affects 1 in 2000 Zimbabwean women. We investigated the type-specific distribution of human papillomavirus (HPV) infection in Zimbabwean women with invasive cervical cancer.


METHODS
We conducted a descriptive study on 98 women with invasive cervical cancer. The methods used were a nested polymerase chain reaction (PCR) for amplification of HPV-DNA and restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP) to characterize the HPV types.


RESULTS
HPV-DNA was identified in 97% of the cases. HPV types 16, 33, 18 and 31 were identified in 61%, 39%, 18% and 4% of the patients, respectively. We typed one case each of HPV types 35 and 58. Multiple HPV infections were present in 24%. All patients (n = 3) with adenocarcinoma of the cervix were infected with the HPV. Patients infected with HPV-16 alone presented at a median age of 46 years while those infected with HPV-33 alone presented at 43 years. However, patients coinfected with both HPV-16 and HPV-33 were between 10 and 13 years older (median age of 56 years) than patients with either HPV-16 or HPV-33 as single infections. These differences were marginally significant (p = 0.08) or significant (p = 0.02), respectively.


CONCLUSIONS
We present the first prevalence data on HPV types in patients with cervical cancer in Zimbabwe and show that, provided appropriate techniques are employed, HPV infection can be identified in a majority of the patients. The distribution of HPV types should be taken into consideration in tailoring locally relevant vaccines against HPV.
Stanczuk
Grazyna A
GA
Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, University of Zimbabwe Medical School, Harare, Zimbabwe. grazyna87@hotmail.com
Kay
Patti
P
Sibanda
Elopy
E
Allan
Bruce
B
Chirara
Mike
M
Tswana
Sam A
SA
Bergstrom
Staffan
S
Williamson
Anna-Lise
AL
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D004279:DNA, Viral / Q000235:genetics*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008875:Middle Aged; D009361:Neoplasm Invasiveness / Q000235:genetics*; D027383:Papillomaviridae / Q000235:genetics*; D030361:Papillomavirus Infections / Q000150:complications* / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000235:genetics*; D016133:Polymerase Chain Reaction; D012150:Polymorphism, Restriction Fragment Length; D015995:Prevalence; D014412:Tumor Virus Infections / Q000150:complications* / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000235:genetics*; D002583:Uterine Cervical Neoplasms / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000209:etiology* / Q000235:genetics*; D015030:Zimbabwe / Q000453:epidemiology
D004279:DNA, Viral