Molecular Identification of Human Papillomavirus DNA in Thyroid Neoplasms: Association or Serendipity?

Human papillomavirus (HPV) is recognized as the most important cofactor in the etiology of cancers of the cervix, esophagus, larynx, and nasopharynx. Experimental evidence suggests that HPV could have an oncogenic influence on thyroid follicular cells; however, to the best of our knowledge, there is no record of its role in human thyroid gland neoplasms.

The purpose of this study is to describe the frequency and the types of HPV present in neoplastic thyroid tissue by polymerase chain reaction-restriction fragment length polymorphism (PCR-RFLP).

Over 157 samples were analyzed of paraffin-embedded tissue from malignant and benign thyroid tumors. All the paraffin blocks were selected consecutively from the Pathology Tissue Bank archive of the Western Medical Center. The molecular detection and typing were performed at the Molecular Microbiology Laboratory of the Biomedical Research Center, Mexican Institute of Social Security.

The frequency of HPV findings was 2.5% (four cases). HPV-6 was found in two cases of thyroid hyperplasia (2.5%), and HPV-33 in two cases of papillary cancer (4.6%).

The presence of HPV is not frequent in thyroid neoplasms, at least in the studied population. Due to the low prevalence of this virus in our sample, it is not possible to reach conclusions. Further research is needed.