Human papillomaviruses in hand squamous cell carcinomas from Chilean patients

Cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) accounts for 20% of all skin cancers and its incidence continues to increase globally. It represents 75% of non-melanoma skin cancer (NMSC) mortality. Risk factors include ultraviolet radiation (UVR) exposure, advanced age, chemical exposure, fair skin types, and immunosuppression. While most human papillomavirus (HPV) infections are associated with the development of warts, a subgroup is potentially implicated in the development of cutaneous SCC. The prevalence of alpha, beta, and gamma-HPV in Chilean patients with hand SCCs has not been previously addressed. The objective of this study was to evaluate the presence of HPV and genotyping in hand SCC from Chilean patients.

An observational, cross-sectional, descriptive study was conducted. Alpha (α), beta (β) and gamma (γ)-HPV detection was performed by conventional polymerase chain reaction (PCR) in paraffin-embedded tissue samples from 52 patients diagnosed with hand SCC from Santiago, Chile. HPV genotyping was carried out via direct amplicon sequencing by Sanger method.

The most frequent carcinoma site was the dorsum of the hands (52.5%). α-HPV was not detected in these specimens, whereas β-HPV and γ-HPV were detected in 25% of the analyzed samples. The most frequent genotypes found were β-HPV 100 (38%) and γ-HPV 178 (15%). Additionally, γ-HPV 101, 162, HPV-mSK_016, HPV-mSK_083, HPV-mSK_213 and HPV-mSK249nr genotypes were detected, none of which had been previously described in cutaneous SCC.

β-HPV and γ-HPV are detectable in 25% of hand SCCs from Chilean patients. It is important to conduct prospective studies to better elucidate the role of these viruses in the development of this disease.