Cervical Cancer, Human Papillomavirus Infection, and Vaccine-Related Knowledge: Awareness in Chinese Women.

Cervical cancer (CC) has a high incidence and mortality and is accompanied by lack of organized CC screening programs, lack of health-care facilities, and a lack of human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccination among female population in the world, particularly China. We recruited 487 females who visited the outpatient department of the First People's Hospital of Yunnan Province from November 2015 to January 2016 to complete a standardized-designed questionnaire. We found that only 39.6% of the females knew about the role of HPVs in the development of cervical cancer. Moreover, none of the females knew that HPV could cause penile carcinomas, perianal carcinomas, and head and neck carcinomas. The majority of the participants acquired information about cervical cancer, HPV, and the HPV vaccine from medical workers. Only 15.6% of the recruited females had heard about the HPV vaccine. The overall HPV vaccine acceptance rate was higher (91.2%) if the vaccine was available free of cost. In this study, we found high acceptability of the HPV vaccine in Chinese women and high awareness about cervical cancer. However, very low levels of knowledge about HPVs and their role in cancer development among the recruited women is alarming. Therefore, it is very important to initiate educational programs to raise awareness and knowledge about cervical cancer, HPV, and the HPV vaccine in this region.

The distribution of human papillomavirus genotypes in cervical cancer and intraepithelial neoplasia lesions among Chinese women in Yunnan Province.

This study was designed to explore baseline data about the prevalence and distribution of human papillomavirus (HPV) genotypes among Chinese women who had cervical intraepithelial lesions and cervical cancer. A total of 511 patients were recruited, and biopsy samples were collected from these patients. Polymerase chain reaction was used to detect HPV-positive samples, and the HPV GenoArray kit was used for genotyping. A total of 23 genotypes were detected, including 13 that were high risk-HPV (HR-HPV), 3 that were potential high risk-HPV (PHR-HPV) and 7 that were low risk-HPV (LR-HPV). The prevalence rates of HPV infection in Han women diagnosed with cervical intraepithelial lesions (CIN) 1, 2, and 3 and squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) were 98.30%, 97.56, 100% and 90%, respectively. The HPV-positive cases in women of other ethnicities diagnosed with CIN1, CIN2, and CIN3 and SCC were 95%, 90.91%, 88.23% and 83.33%, respectively. The most frequent genotypes in both ethnic groups were HPV-16, 52, and 58. LR-HPV was detected in SCC lesions in the non-Han ethnic group. In the Han ethnic group, the LR-HPV genotype was mostly restricted to CIN1 lesions. Furthermore, we found a high prevalence of PHR-HPV-81 in SCC lesions among Han women. Ethnic background, smoking, sex at an early age, unprotected sex, use of contraceptives, and the withdrawal method were found to be significantly associated with HPV infection. In conclusion, this study explores epidemiological data regarding the prevalence of HPV and the genotype distribution in patients with SCC and CIN lesions in Yunnan Province, China.