Papillomaviruses and skin cancer in Africa

Although it was suggested long ago that certain epithelial cancers preceded by papillomas might be caused by viruses, the first proof that papillomaviruses were associated with cancer dates from the work on rabbits in 1934 by Shope and Rose. In the 1970s, the introduction of the blot hybridization technique enabled Orth and his co-workers at the Institut Pasteur, Paris, to demonstrate the presence in man of the DNA of human papillomavirus type 5 (HPV-5) in cancers following Lutz-Lewandovsky epidermodysplasia verruciformis. Some years later, it was possible to demonstrate the presence of the same HPV-5 DNA in the skin cancer of an immunosuppressed recipient of a renal transplant. The number of potentially oncogenic papillomaviruses has recently been increased by the demonstration at the Institut Pasteur of the presence of the DNAs of HPV-8 and HPV-14 in the skin cancers of patients with epidermodysplasia verruciformis. In recent years, an association has been demonstrated between HPV-6, -10, -11, -16, and -18 with verrucous cancers of the skin and mucous membranes, Bowenoid papules, Bowenoid skin diseases and cervical cancer. Such cancers of the skin and mucous membranes are usually treated by surgery, but it has been shown that oral administration of retinoids (synthetic derivatives of vitamin A) or the use of leucocyte interferon intralesionally are effective in cancers in situ following epidermodysplasia verruciformis.