Human papillomavirus DNA and p53 status in penile carcinomas

✍ Scribed by José E. Levi; Paula Rahal; Álvaro S. Sarkis; Luisa L. Villa

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 1998
• Tongue: French
• Weight: 289 KB
• Volume: 76
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0020-7136
• DOI: 10.1002/(sici)1097-0215(19980610)76:6<779::aid-ijc1>3.0.co;2-v

✦ Synopsis

Our study aimed at evaluating the presence of human papillomavirus (HPV) DNA in a series of 84 paraffinembedded (PET) penile carcinomas. We have also investigated the presence of p53 mutations in these tumors by immunohistochemistry (IHC), single-stranded conformational polymorphism (SSCP) and DNA sequencing. Tissues were submitted to amplification of a 268 bp fragment from the ␤-globin gene and a fragment of the E6 gene of HPV types 6, 11, 16 and 18. Twenty samples (18 fixed in Bouin's solution and 2 in buffered formalin) were found inadequate and were excluded from the analysis. In the remaining 64 tumors, HPV DNA was found in 26% of the samples. The prevalence of HPV in fresh samples of the same tumors was 56%. The most prevalent type was HPV 16 in both fresh samples and PET. Isotopic in situ hybridization was performed in all PET samples, but only 2 cases were positive, 1 for HPV 16 and 1 for HPV 18. Immunohistochemistry with anti-p53 pAb1801 antibody showed a positive nuclear reaction over more than 5% of tumor cells in 26% of the cases. SSCP of exons 5-8 of the p53 gene was performed on 9 HPV-positive and 12 HPV-negative specimens. Abnormal mobility was found in 26% of the tumors, of which 2 were HPV positive and 5 HPV negative. Point mutations were detected in p53 exons 6 (1 case), 7 (1 case) and 8 (5 cases), showing that high-risk type HPVs and mutated p53 may coexist in these tumors. Our data indicate that a subset of penile carcinomas are etiologically related to HPV and that an overlapping subset may arise from mutational events in the p53 gene.