Human papillomavirus, Epstein-Barr virus, and cervical carcinoma in Greenland

The incidence of cervical cancer in Greenland is one of the highest in the world. This is in accordance with known epidemiologic risk factors, in particular of sexual lifestyle and tobacco smoking. Yet a recent study of cervical smears from randomly selected Greenlandic women failed to demonstrate any elevated prevalence of human papillomavirus (HPV), of which particularly HPV types 16 and 18 are assumed to play a role in the development of cervical dysplasia and carcinoma. Another oncogenic virus, Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) is known to be widespread in the Greenlandic population and the virus has been reported to infect the female genital tract. We therefore used the polymerase chain reaction to examine paraffin-embedded tissues of cervical carcinomas from 11 indigenous Greenlandic women and, for comparison, also cervical carcinoma tissues from 11 Danish patients, for EBV, HPV 16 and HPV 18 DNA sequences. None of the 22 cervical tissues contained EBV DNA. Six Greenlandic and five Danish carcinomas harbored HPV 16 DNA, and one carcinoma of each group was HPV 18-positive. In conclusion, cervical carcinoma is not associated with EBV infection. Further, the oncogenic HPVs are probably encountered at the same rate in carcinomas from Greenland and from Denmark.