[The relationship with human papilloma virus DNA in cervical adenocarcinoma]

Recently, cervical adenocarcinoma has been increasing especially among young women and account for 10-20% of cervical cancer. However, the detection rate of HPV-DNA was 35-85% and lower than that of squamous cell carcinoma. Furthermore, the relationship with HPV in cervical adenocarcinoma was not much investigated in Japan, so we studied HPV status in cervical adenocarcinoma by in situ PCR method using biotin-labeled DNA probes, because in situ PCR method possesses the advantages of both PCR and in situ hybridization in being highly sensitive and enabling visualization of the cellular localization of the DNA. HPV infection was analyzed in 60 cervical adenocarcinomas, including 1 adenocarcinoma in situ and 15 adenosquamous carcinomas. HPV-DNA was detected in 47 of all 60 cases(78%): 35 of 45(78%) in adenocarcinomas and 12 of 15(80%) in adenosquamous carcinomas. No significant correlation was found between the HPV-DNA detection rate and histological subtypes of adenocarcinoma. In conclusion, cervical adenocarcinoma demonstrates a high prevalence of HPV-DNA as well as other previous studies. Therefore, HPV infection plays a very important role in not only squamous cell carcinoma but also adenocarcinoma in uterine cervix.