Associations between oncogenic human papillomaviruses and local invasive patterns in cervical cancer

The polymerase chain reaction (PCR) was used to detect human papillomavirus (HPV) DNA in Formalin-acetic acid alcohol (FAA)-fixed paraffin-embedded tissue from 40 patients whose primary cervical cancers showed a tentacular pattern of invasion at their advancing edges, and 40 patients (matched by age, International Federation of Obstetrics and Gynecology (FIGO) stage and histology type) whose tumors showed broad front invasion. The rate of HPV DNA positivity was the same in both the tentacular and the broad front tumors (83%), but the ratios of HPV 16 to HPV 18 in the two groups were markedly different (20:10 versus 27:4, respectively). HPV type 18 was detected more frequently in tentacular than broad front tumors (P = 0.03). The overall rates of recurrence and mortality were 15 and 9%, respectively (18 and 10% in the tentacular group compared with 13 and 8% in the broad front group). Univariate analysis showed statistically significant associations between HPV 18 and tumor recurrence (P = 0.04), but not between a tentacular pattern of invasion and tumor recurrence (P < 0.05). The findings to emerge from this survey indicate that the presence of particular HPV types may, in part, mediate the histological and clinical behavior of cervical cancers.