detection of human papillomavirus in osophageal squamous cell carcinoma samples in mazandaran province, iran

methods: we examined 170 formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded samples from esophageal squamous cell carcinoma patients. all subjects live in mazandaran province, a region with high incidence rate of esophageal cancer and have become known as the “asian esophageal cancer belt”. samples were tested for hpv-dna by my09/11 and gp5+/6+ general primers using nested pcr. results: of the 170 escc samples, 86 (50.6%) were male and 84 (49.4%) were female. the mean age of the subjects was 66.5±11.1 and ranged from 35 to 91 years. totally, hpv-dna was detected in 62 (36.5%) of the esophageal squamous cell carcinoma samples by hpv l1 consensus primers. considering the location of esophagus specimens, of 62 positive samples, 16 (25.8%) samples were in the upper third, 28 (45.2%) in the middle third, and 18(29.0%) in the lower third. conclusions: the current study showed a relatively substantial prevalence of hpv infection in esophageal squamous cell carcinoma samples in mazandaran province.