ABSTRACT
<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>To evaluate the etiological significance of human papillomavirus (HPV) in cervical cancer and the clinical utility of HPV detection in cervical cancer screening.</p><p><b>METHODS</b>Hybrid capture II test was used to detect 13 high-risk HPV genotypes from cervical scrapes of 2636 women. Cervical cytology was also evaluated in 454 of them by ThinPrep Pap smear.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>Among 2636 women, 699 (26.5%) were found to be high-risk HPV positive. The highest infection rate (59.4%) was found in the age group of < or = 20 years and the lowest infection rate in the age group of 41 approximately 50 years (21.0%). Significant differences in HPV infection rate were found between different cities in Guangdong province, such as those between Xinhui and Guangzhou, Xinhui and Shenzhen, Xinhui and Dongguan (P < 0.01). Fifteen out of 16 women (93.8%) with cervical carcinoma were infected with high-risk HPV versus 24 out of 125 women (19.2%) attending routine cervical cancer screening (P < 0.001). The HPV infection rate was 30.8% (142 out of 461) in women with cervical erosion, which was significantly lower than that in patients with cervical carcinoma (P < 0.001). HPV DNA were detected in 100% (2/2) of squamous cell carcinoma (SCC), 100% (12/12) high grade squamous intraepithelial lesion (HSIL), 88.9% (16/18) of low grade squamous intraepithelial lesion (LSIL) and 37.8% (28/74) of atypical squamous cells (ASC).</p><p><b>CONCLUSION</b>High-risk HPV genotypes are the major causes of cervical cancers and HPV detection is a reliable adjuvant tool for cervical cancer screening.</p>