Human papillomavirus 16 dna in cervical cancers and in lymph nodes of cervical cancer patients: A diagnostic marker for early metastases?

✍ Scribed by P. G. Fuchs; F. Girardi; H. Pfister

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 1989
• Tongue: French
• Weight: 824 KB
• Volume: 43
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0020-7136
• DOI: 10.1002/ijc.2910430110

✦ Synopsis

Human papillomavirus (HPV) 16 is most prevalent in cenical cancers and also persists in metastases. We examined HPV 16-DNA-positive primary cancers and several lymph nodes from each of 14 patients to evaluate the use of HPV16 D N A as a diagnostic marker for the detection of early node involvement. The HPV16 D N A was exclusively integrated in 39% of the primary cancers. predominantly episomal in 36%, and integrated and extrachromosomal to a similar extent in 25%. Thirteen of 16 involved lymph nodes contained HPV16 sequences. Integrated viral D N A showed the same pattern in primary tumors and in metastases. The level of extrachromosomal HPV 16 DNA, however, appeared to be considerably reduced in some nodes. HPV16 D N A was also detected in 18 out of 59 histologically negative lymph nodes. This result recommends nucleic acid hybridization as a sensitive method for the detection of HPV-DNA-positive cancer cells. The prognostic significance of viral sequences in histologically negative nodes remains to be established.