Human Papilloma Virus prevalence and type-specific relative contribution in invasive cervical cancer specimens from Italy

Namita Nayyar (WF Team)

12 years ago

Human Papilloma Virus prevalence and type-specific relative contribution in invasive cervical cancer specimens from Italy

– Reported, January 19 2013

Cervical cancer is a serious public health problem representing the 2nd most common cancer diagnosed among women worldwide. HPV infection is now well-established as necessary but not sufficient cause of ICC development. Only a small fraction of women with cervical HPV infection develop ICC, suggesting that other co-factors besides HPV are necessary to cause cancer progression. More than 30 different HPV types are known to infect the cervical epithelium. Human Papillomavirus (HPV) infection is now well-established as a necessary cause of invasive cervical cancer (ICC) development. Only a few studies on HPV prevalence and type-specific distribution in ICC have been conducted in Italy.

This study was not only to present HPV prevalence but also to describe HPV type distribution in ICC specimens from Italy. This study is part of a larger project (Catalan Institute of Oncology-ICO survey) that aims to describe the HPV type-specific distribution in ICC specimens from areas with limited information available using standardized protocols.

Even though a high-sensitive HPV DNA PCR based technology was used for detection and HPV typing, our study is not without some limitations. Sample collection was available from only one hospital in Italy (the Regina Elena National Cancer Institute of Rome). Although the number of samples analyzed is limited and obviously not representative of the whole country, they were originated from a systematic collection at a national cancer reference centre providing a potential good representation of all cases in the country.

The data is in good agreement with previously published information and indicate that a HPV vaccine targeting HPV types 16 and 18 could potentially prevent 70% of HPV positive cervical cancers. The earlier age at diagnosis of most HPV 16 related cancers may have implications in future strategies of prevention in adult women.

CREDITS: Luciano Mariani, Núria Monfulleda, Laia Alemany, Enrico Vizza, Ferdinando Marandino, Amina Vocaturo, Maria Benevolo, Beatriz Quirós, Belén Lloveras, Jo Ellen Klaustermeier, Wim Quint, Silvia de Sanjosé, and F Xavier Bosch

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/

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