Human papillomavirus type distribution in invasive cervical cancers from Madhya Pradesh: implications for vaccination...

Invasive cervical carcinoma (ICC) remains a leading cause of female mortality in India. There is a paucity of data about human papillomavirus (HPV) type distribution among ICCs from Central India. Formalin-fixed, paraffin-embedded ICC specimens (n=270 patients) from Madhya Pradesh state were screened for HPV by GP5/6 primer-based polymerase chain reaction followed by cycle sequencing and NCBI BLAST search. HPV was detected in 93.3% of the tumors. Thirteen types were detected: HPV16 (73.7%), HPV18 (11.9%), HPV45 (2.2%), HPV66 (1.5%), HPV35 (1.1%), and HPV56 (0.7%). HPV31, 51, 58, 59, 67, 82 and JEB2 were each seen in 1 case (0.4%). HPV16 was more common among women less than 40 yr than 40 yr or older (P=0.006), and HPV18 was more common in women aged 40 yr or older (P=0.013). Squamous cell carcinomas were more frequently HPV-positive than adenocarcinomas (P=0.01). HPV18 was more common in adenocarcinoma than in squamous cell carcinoma (P=0.02). These data contribute to the pan-India profile of HPV-type relationship to ICC and show the potential of current vaccines to greatly relieve (by up to 85.6%) the ICC burden in Central India. The findings are also suggestive that next-generation HPV vaccines might be designed on a regional basis rather than from compounded global data.