Type-Specific Prevalence of Genital Human Papillomaviruses in Benign, Premalignant, and Malignant Biopsies in Patients From Greece

Abstract

More than 30 different human papillomavirus (HPV) types infect the anogenital mucosa and are responsible for a variety of benign, premalignant, and malignant lesions including cervical cancer. The goal of this study was to determine the distribution of individual HPV types in various grades of cervical precancerous lesions and cervical carcinoma in patients from Greece. Specimens were analyzed for HPV-DNA sequences by polymerase chain reaction and Southern blot hybridization. Polymerase chain reaction analysis was performed with consensus and type-specific primers. Restriction length fragment polymorphism analysis and/or hybridization of the general primer polymerase chain reaction product were used for HPV typing. In cervical carcinomas HPV-16 was found in 56%, HPV-18 in 23%, and HPV-31 in 6% of the HPV-positive patients. In precancerous lesions HPV-16 was found in 13% of low-grade squamous intraepithelial lesions (LG-SIL) as compared with 41% of high-grade squamous intraepithelial lesions (HG-SIL) patients. HPV-18 was found at similar frequency both in LG-SIL (13%) and HG-SIL (14%). HPV-31 and HPV-33 were detected at moderate levels both in LG-SIL (11%) and in HG-SIL (14%). In addition, HPV-53 and HPV-66 were detected at low frequency in LG-SIL (2%), whereas HPV-51 was found only in HG-SIL (4%). Finally, HPV-6 was associated with 13% of LG-SIL. Overall, the prevalence rate of the genital HPV types was in the range previously described for many western countries but the HPV-18 positivity was higher than that reported for most European countries.