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Use of Interferon-γ Enzyme-linked Immunospot Assay to Characterize Novel T-cell Epitopes of Human Papillomavirus
Published on: March 8, 2012
Low risk and high risk human papillomaviruses (HPVs) and cervical cancer in Zimbabwe: epidemiological evidence
M Chirara1, G A Stanczuk, S A Tswana
1Department of Chemical Pathology, University of Zimbabwe, School of Medicine, P O Box A178, Avondale, Harare. mchirara@healthnet.zw
Objective:
To establish the prevalence of detectable low-risk and high-risk, oncogenic HPV types in cervical swabs of women with histologically proven cancer of the cervix.
Design:
Cross sectional study.
Setting:
Harare Central and Parirenyatwa Hospitals.
Subjects:
119 women with histologically proven cervical cancer of whom 63 had the degree of differentiation of the tumour reported.
Main Outcome Measures:
Frequency of infection with high and low-risk human papillomaviruses.
Results:
The presence of HPV DNA was demonstrated in 63% (75/119) of cases. Low risk HPVs were present in 26% (31/119) and high-risk HPVs were demonstrated in 51% (61/119) of samples tested. Co-infection with both low-risk and high-risk HPVs was observed in 14% (17/119) of the specimens. High-risk HPVs were detected in 55% (21/38) of poorly differentiated tumours while 60% (15/25) of moderately and well-differentiated tumours showed the presence of high-risk HPVs.
Conclusion:
High-risk human papillomaviruses are associated with cervical cancer. There was no significant difference in the frequency of high-risk HPV types in women with moderately to well-differentiated tumours and those with poorly-differentiated tumours.
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