ABSTRACT
<p><b>Objective</b>To study the correlation of high-risk human papillomavirus 16 and 18 (HPV16/18) infections with the risk of prostate cancer (PCa) and their association with the clinicopathologic indexes of PCa.</p><p><b>METHODS</b>We collected tissue samples from 75 cases of PCa and 73 cases of benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH). We detected HPV16/18 infections in the samples by immunohistochemistry and PCR combined with reverse dot blot (RDB) assay.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>Immunohistochemistry revealed 16 cases of HPV16/18 positive in the PCa (21.3%) and 7 cases in the BPH samples (9.5%), with statistically significant difference between the two groups (P=0.049). PCR combined with RDB assay showed 17 cases of HPV16 infection (22.6%) and 13 cases of HPV18 infection (17.8%), including 4 cases of HPV16/18 positive, in the PCa group, remarkably higher than 6 cases of HPV16 infection (8.2%), 3 cases of HPV18 infection (4.1%) and no HPV16/18 positive in the BPH controls (P=0.001). No significant differences were observed between the result of immunohistochemistry and that of PCR combined with RDB assay (P=0.069). The risk of HPV16/18 infections was found to be correlated with the clinical T-stage and Gleason score of PCa (P<0.05 ) but not with the patient's age, PSA level or lymph node metastasis (P>0.05 ).</p><p><b>CONCLUSIONS</b>High-risk HPV16/18 infections are correlated with the risk of prostate cancer.</p>