Human Papillomavirus Infection in Patients With VaIN and Vaginal Cancer: A Retrospective Cross-Sectional Study

Vaginal cancer is a rare malignancy, and the research on it is not comprehensive yet. To explore the characteristics of human papillomavirus (HPV) infection in patients with vaginal intraepithelial neoplasia (VaIN) and vaginal cancer.

This study included patients who underwent colposcopy and biopsy of suspected sites at the Second Hospital of Shanxi Medical University from January 2014 to December 2023 due to abnormal cytology results and/or positive HPV test. Those diagnosed with benign inflammatory reaction of the vagina (ie, vaginitis), VaIN and vaginal cancer according to histologic results were selected as the study objects. Clinical data such as age, menopause, clinical manifestations and previous screening history were collected. We aimed to analyze the distribution and characteristics of HPV in VaIN and vaginal cancer patients.

A total of 5,180 patients were included in this study. Of the total, 2,739 patients had VaIN1, 641 had VaIN2/3, and 251 had vaginal cancer. There were 235 patients with vaginal squamous cell carcinoma (VaSCC) and 16 patients with vaginal adenocarcinoma. A total of 4,548 patients were infected with HPV. The HPV positive rate was 95.5% in VaIN2/3, 86.0% in VaSCC and 43.8% in adenocarcinoma of the vagina. The most common 5 HPV types were HPV16, 52, 58, 53, and 18. The positive rate of HPV18 in the adenocarcinoma of the vagina was the highest.

HPV16, 52, 58, 53, and 18 are the predominant genotypes in VaIN and vaginal cancer in Shanxi, China. HPV testing provides additional benefits for the detection of vaginal lesions during cervical cancer screening. Active HPV vaccination may help reduce the burden of these lesions.