Correlation between human papillomavirus infection and histopathological diagnosis of women in Northeast Brazil

Abstract

Cervical carcinoma is the fourth leading cause of death among women worldwide. Epidemiological studies claim that HPV infection is a necessary condition for cervical cancer development. Knowledge of the geographic distribution of HPV is important in guiding the introduction of prophylactic vaccines. This study analyzed the prevalence of HPV infection in cervical samples obtained from women with abnormal cervical histopathological diagnosis in Northeast Brazil. The study included an analysis of 211 women whose diagnosis was confirmed for CIN‐1, CIN‐2, CIN‐3 and cancer. The identification of the HPV genotypes was based on the PCR/RFLP technique. 42.7% of the samples showed a single HPV infection, while 57.3% showed multiple infections. The most common genotypes detected were HPV‐16, HPV‐18 and HPV‐31. HPV‐16, HPV‐31, HPV‐35 and HPV‐18 were the most common types in CIN‐1 with a single infection. HPV‐16 and HPV‐18 were the most often found in CIN‐2 with a single infection. HPV‐16, HPV‐18 and HPV‐31 were the most detected in CIN‐3 with a single infection. HPV‐16 and HPV‐31 were the most frequent in cancer with a single infection. Multiple infection with HPV‐16 shows a 2.7 times greater risk of CIN‐3 (p =0.04). Multiple infections for HPV with HPV‐16 and excluding the HPV18/31 types, were associated with CIN‐3 (p =0.01). The results allowed the detection and genotyping of HPV types circulating in the population studied. These findings must be taken into account when devising vaccination strategies against HPV.