Cervical carcinoma (CA cervix) is the fourth most common cause of death and the second most common cancer in women world-wide. It is a slowly progressing neoplasm that may take 10-20 years to manifest. CA cervix is one of the few vaccine-preventable cancers because it is caused almost exclusively by an exogenous infective agent, the Human Papilloma Virus (HPV). Among the high-risk strains, strains 16, 18, 45, 31, 33, 35, 39, 51, 52, 56, 58, 59 and 68 are most commonly associated with cervical cancer. Strains 16, 18 and 45 are the most oncogenic, and progress more rapidly to squamous cell carcinomas. Strain 16 is the most prevalent. Strain 18 is more onco-potent and produces cancers that progress faster and have a worse prognosis. This study is aimed to identify the prevalence of particular strains of high-risk HPV associated with cervical cancer in our geographic and demographic niche. Cervical smear sample was collected from 23 women with newly diagnosed cervical cancer attending the out-patient clinic in the Departments of Radiation Oncology and Surgical Oncology. DNA extraction and Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) using type-specific primers for both high-risk types of HPV (16/18) was done. Of the two high-risk HPV strains (16 and 18), we found that of patients had HPV strain 16 alone and 13% had both strains 16 and 18, while none had only strain 18. The remaining 7 cases had neither. This study demonstrates the clear association of HPV infection with cervical carcinomas. There was a high correlation between the high-risk HPV strain 16 and invasive cervical carcinoma. The presence of high-risk HPV strains 16 and 18 in of the sample suggests that vaccine prophylaxis would significantly reduce the incidence of CA cervix. | Human papilloma virus in cervical cancer – An institutional study
