High risk HPV types in southern Iranian patients with cervical cancer

This study was undertaken to assess the rate of HPV infection in cervical carcinoma among southern Iranian patients. 101 archival cervical carcinoma tissue samples of a 10 year period were studied for the presence of HPV DNA in southern Iran by a polymerase chain reaction method. In addition, the presence of high risk HPV-16 and HPV-18 genotypes was investigated. In total, 88 (87.1%) of the samples were HPV DNA positive, of which 83 were squamous cell carcinomas and 5 were adenocarcinomas. HPV-16 genotype was detected in 26.7% of HPV positive cervical carcinomas; however, none of the samples were positive for the existence of HPV-18 genotype. Collectively, these results suggest that HPV-16 and HPV-18 are not the frequent high risk HPV types in our patients and circulating HPV types in southern Iranian population are different from many other populations.