human papillomavirus genotype as a major determinant of the course of cervical cancer

introduction: certain types of human papillomavrus (hpv) are associated with cervical intraepithelial neoplasia (cin) and squamous cell carcinoma (scc). the aim of theobservations reported here was to determine whether the prognosis for invasive cancers of the uterine cervix is related to the type of human papillomavirus asociated with the tumor. material and methods: twenty patients with invasive cervical cancer were prospectively registered from 2000 to 2001. hpv typing was performed by insitu hybridization(ish) on dna extracted from frozen, formal in-fixed, paraffin-embedded tumor specimens. the specimens mostly represented classifications scc stage 1 and stage 2 of the international federation of gynecology and obstetrics (table 1). hpv- dna was detected by insituhybridization, using three different dna probes: types 6/11, 16/18 and 31/33/51. results: hpv dna was detected in the nuclei of scc tumor cells in 13(65%) of 20 cases. of the 13 hpv-dna positive cases three reacted only with the hpv 31/33/51 probe, two reacted only with the 16/18 probe, three showed strong hybridization for both 31/33/51 and 6/11probes, four showed 6/11 and 16/18 genotypes and one case reacted with 31/33/51,6/11and16/18probes. conclusion: the prognosis for invasive cancers of the uterine cervix is dependent on the oncogenic potential of the associated hpv type. hpv typing may provide a prognostic indicator for individual patients and is of potential use in defining specific therapies against hpv harboring tumor cells. these findings are consistent with the hypothesis that hpv infection is the primary cause of cervical neoplasia. furthermore, they support hpv vaccine research to prevent cervical cancer and efforts to develop hpv dna diagnostic tests.