Prevalence of high–risk human papillomavirus in women from Turkey

Objectives: Data on the seroprevalence of Human papillomavirus (HPV) in Turkey are limited. The aim of this study was to characterize the high risk types of HPV in cervical cytology specimens of women in Turkey during routine cervical cancer screening. Methods: Women aged 30 years and older who had been admitted to Tepecik Education and Research Hospital in İzmir province for routine cervical cancer screening between June 2012 and December 2014 were enrolled to the study. Cervical swab samples were collected for HPV-DNA examination. For identifying HPV genotypes, cervical samples were analyzed by Cobas® 4800 HPV Test qualitative real-time PCR system (Roche Molecular Systems Inc., Alameda, CA, USA) for HPV types 16, 18 and the other 12 high risk HPV (hrHPV) types (31, 33, 35, 39, 45, 51, 52, 56, 58, 59, 66, 68). Results: In this study, the overall HPV positivity was detected in 10.07% (539/5350 samples) of women during routine cervical cancer screening. Of these; HPV type 16 was detected in 187 samples (31.59%), HPV type 18 in 46 samples (7.77%), and other hrHPV (pool of 12 genotypes) in 359 samples (60.64%), either as single or multiple infections combined. Of 539 HPV positive samples, 489 (90.72%) were single type HPV infections and the remainder (n=50, 9.28%) were multiple type infections. There was no significant difference in HPV prevalence by decades of life. Conclusions: Our results showed that hrHPV types other than type 16 or type 18 are the most detected genotypes in women undergoing routine cervical cancer screening. Data of the heterogeneity in HPV type distribution must be taken into account for the decision of vaccination and screening modalities. Correspondence to: Nisel Ozkalay Yilmaz, MD, Department of Microbiology Laboratory, Tepecik Educational and Research Hospital, Izmir, Turkey, Tel:+90-232-4696969; Fax:+90-232-4330756, E-mail: [email protected] Received: September 17, 2015; Accepted: October 25, 2015; Published: October 29, 2015 Introduction Cervical cancer is the second most common cancer among women worldwide [1]. Persistent infections with carcinogenic Human papillomavirus (HPV) types are well-recognized causes of cervical cancers. More than 100 different HPV types have been identified, and genotypes 16, 18, 31, 33, 34, 35, 39, 45, 51, 52, 56, 58, 59, 66, 68 and 70 are associated with the development of cervical intraepithelial neoplasia grade 2, or 3 and invasive cervical cancer and these genotypes have been classified as high-risk group [2]. Thus, HPV genotype detection is helpful procedure in reducing cervical cancer incidence [3]. Despite the association of HPV infection in carcinogenesis has been extensively studied worldwide, limited data are available on HPV genotype distribution, prevalence, or associated cervical diseases in especially economically undeveloped countries. Since the vaccines have been developed to reduce the global burden of HPV related diseases, determining the distribution of HPV genotypes is crucial for implementation of vaccines [4]. In consequence of the lack of reliable data on the distribution of HPV types among Turkish women, in the current study we aimed to investigate the high risk types of HPV in cervical cytology specimens of women aged older than 30 years and to identify the distribution according to the ages of the patients.