Presence and integration of human papillomavirus type 6 in a tonsillar carcinoma

Human papillomavirus type 6 subtype a (HPV-6a) was detected in a human invasive tonsillar carcinoma. Southern blot hybridization analysis showed the presence of additional bands when using non-cutting and single-cut restriction enzymes. Molecular cloning yielded two recombinant clones of 8.0 and 1.4 kb in size. The first represents the complete HPV-6a genome. Sequence analysis of the second clone showed a 0.6 kb DNA sequence corresponding to the L2 region of HPV-6a, whereas the rest belongs to cellular sequences. These data show the presence of a usually low risk HPV type in an invasive carcinoma, at an unusual infection site, with viral DNA integrated into the host genome. These findings add evidence in support of the hypothesis of a relationship between HPV infection and at least some ororespiratory cancers.