Ghazi Alsbeih, Najla Al-Harbi, Sara Elewisy, Sara Bin Judia, Jenelyn Castro, Hadeel Almanea, Hatim Khoja, Asma Tulbah, Nasser Alrajhi and Ghazi Alsbeih
King Faisal Specialist Hospital & Research Centre, Saudi Arabia
Posters & Accepted Abstracts: Gynecol Obstet
The involvement of HPV infection in invasive cervical and oropharyngeal cancers in Saudi patients is not fully defined. The aim of this study was to determine the distribution of HPV infections and genotypes in these cancers and potential HPV integration based on the assumption that in invasive tumors, the viral DNA is integrated into the host genome. Since integration often disrupts the E2 gene, the assay is based on the quantification of E6 relative to E2 DNA quantified by qRTPCR technique. Paraffin-embedded tumor samples from more than 400 patients treated for cervical (n=213), H&N (n=200), were examined. Age of patients ranged between 28 and 106 years old. HPV was detected in 160 cervix and four oropharyngeal cancer patients (75% and 2% respectively). Seven different single HPV genotypes (16, 18, 31, 45, 56, 59, 73) and five double infections (16/18, 16/39, 16/70, 35/52, 45/59) were detected. The most common genotype was HPV-16 (71%), followed by 31 (7%), and 18, 45, 73 (4% each). Testing HPV integration in 81 cervical cancers indicated that about one-third of samples have highly integrated HPV-16 in the host genome. We conclude that the rate of HPV infection (75%) is lower for cervix cancer and much lower (2%) for oropharyngeal cancers of what has been estimated worldwide (85-99% and 25%-36%, respectively). HPV 16 and 18 were the most common genotypes. Therefore, current HPV vaccines are expected to protect more than two-third of cervical cancer women in Saudi Arabia.
Email: galsbeih@kfshrc.edu.sa
