[Detection of human papilloma virus among women with cervical cancer using PCR method]

ABSTRACT

Cervical cancer is the second leading cancer among women, worldwide. It is also the second malignant cause of death, particularly in women aged 25-65. In order to progress a cancer from dysplasia to invasive carcinoma, a cascade of cellular changes should occur. Since genital HPV carries oncogenes responsible for these essential changes, today HPV is considered as the major risk factor of cervical cancer. It is believed that HPV can increase the rate of cancer progression when associating with other risk factors such as smoking, taking contraceptive drugs, immunosuppression, etc. Paraffin-embedded cervical tissues of 70 patients with cervical cancer were analyzed by PCR method for presence of HPV. In addition, high risk typing of HPV positive samples was performed using HPV high risk typing PCR kit. Among all patients 49% were positive for HPV. HPV16 was the most common type detected in HPV-positive cases. Investigation of age classification showed that a majority of HPV positive cases aged between 35 and 44 years. Considering the prevalence of HPV among young women with cervical cancer and its long premalignant period, we suggest to examine all the women above 20 years of age and also check the suspected cases for HPV