BackgroundCervical cancer is the most common cancer among women in Nepal. The prevalence of human papillomavirus (HPV) 16 and or HPV 18 among women with cervical pre-cancer and cancer is higher than the incidence of HPV in the world population. The population-based epidemiological data of HPV in the general population in most parts of the country remains unknown. The objective of this study was to assess the prevalence and type distribution of HPV infection and association of abnormal cytology with high risk HPV infection among women in mid-western rural, Nepal.MethodsA population-based cross sectional study was conducted in Jumla, one of the most remote districts in Nepal. A total of 1050 cervical samples were collected from married and non- pregnant women aged 20–65 years during mobile Cervical Cancer Screening Clinics conducted from May 2016 to January 2017. The presence of HPV DNA was firstly confirmed by HPV consensus PCR using PGMY09/PGMY11 designed primers, then HPV positive samples were further genotyped by the membrane hybridization method to detect the 21 high-risk HPV (HR-HPV) and low-risk HPV types. The prevalence of HR-HPV among women with normal and abnormal cytology was calculated. Data were analyzed using SPSS software for Windows. P < 0.05 was considered statistically significant.ResultsA total of 998 women were eligible for this study with the mean age 32.6 ± 8.6 years, and the mean marital age was 16.7 ± 3.8 years. The overall prevalence of HPV infections was 19.7%. HR-HPV and low-risk HPV were 11.7 and 8.7% respectively. The six most common HR-HPV types were HPV16, 39, 58, 33, 51 and 18. HR-HPV infection among the women with abnormal and normal cytology was of 27.3 and 10.8% respectively.ConclusionsThere was a higher prevalence of HR-HPV infection among women living in Jumla than other parts of Nepal. This study provides preliminary information on overall HPV and type-specific HR-HPV prevalence, HR-HPV 16, 39, 58, 33, 51, and 18 are the most prevalent genotypes in this region. The data contribute to the epidemiological knowledge about HPV and type-specific HR-HPV genotypes prevalence in mid-Western Nepal.

Myeloid differentiation 1 (MD‐1), also known as lymphocyte antigen 86 (Ly86), is a soluble protein homologous to MD‐2 and forms a complex with radioprotective 105 (RP105). RP105/MD‐1 complex negatively regulates toll‐like receptor 4 (TLR4) signaling and is involved in several immune disorders. However, the precise role of MD‐1 in inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD) remains poorly understood. To further investigate the involvement of MD‐1 in IBD, we inhibited MD‐1 in colon with antisense oligonucleotide (AS‐ODN) and assessed the effect of MD‐1 inhibition on dextran sodium sulfate (DSS)‐induced colitis. We discovered that MD‐1 protein expression was remarkably decreased in both patients with ulcerative colitis and mice with DSS‐induced colitis. For the first time, we showed that oral administration of MD‐1 AS‐ODN to mice significantly suppressed the MD‐1 protein levels in colon rather than systemic tissues. Subsequently, we found that MD‐1 AS‐ODN treated mice were more susceptible to DSS‐induced colitis based on loss of body weight, colon length, histological scores, and disease activity index. MD‐1 inhibition also significantly enhanced inflammatory cytokines production such as IL‐6 and IL‐1β in colons. Finally, mice treated with MD‐1 AS‐ODN exhibited increased messenger RNA levels of TLR4 and MyD88 after DSS exposure and showed enhanced nuclear factor (NF)‐κB activation compared with the control. Taken together, specifically suppression of MD‐1 in colon tissues with AS‐ODN exacerbates DSS‐induced experimental colitis in mice, which is possibly related to activation of TLR4/NF‐κB signaling.

PurposeThe aim of this study was to investigate the impact of vaginal cuff length (VCL) resected during radical hysterectomy (RH) on the long-term survival outcomes of patients with cervical cancer (International Federation of Gynecology and Obstetrics [FIGO] stage IB–IIA) and to explore whether VCL is a prognostic factor for cervical cancer.MethodsA total of 435 eligible patients with stage IB and IIA cervical cancer who underwent RH in Zhongnan Hospital of Wuhan University (Wuhan, People’s Republic of China) from January 2007 to February 2017 were retrospectively analyzed. These patients were divided into two groups (VCL ≤2.0 cm and >2.0 cm) for further analysis according to the VCL during RH. The Kaplan–Meier method was adopted to calculate the survival rates. Univariate and multivariate Cox regression models were used to analyze independent prognosis factors for survival.ResultsOf the 435 identified patients, 196 had VCL ≤2.0 cm and 239 had VCL >2.0 cm after RH. The 5-year disease-free survival (DFS) for the group who had VCL ≤2.0 cm vs the group who had VCL >2.0 cm was 68.1% vs 87.5% (P<0.001). Correspondingly, the overall survival (OS) for the two groups was 71.4% vs 89.2% (P<0.001). More interestingly, the VCL was significantly associated with the 5-year local recurrence rate, but not associated with the distant metastasis rate. In addition to the VCL, FIGO stage and lymph node involvement were also identified as significant prognostic factors for cervical cancer.ConclusionResection of VCL >2.0 cm in RH has a more favorable long-term outcome than VCL ≤2.0 cm among patients with cervical cancer (FIGO stage IB–IIA); shorter VCL resection was significantly associated with local recurrence, DFS, and OS; thus, it can be considered as a prognostic factor for cervical cancer.

Introduction: In Nepal, cervical cancer is the most common female cancer. Unfortunately, there is no uniform effective screening system available all around the country. The objective of this study is to evaluate the cytology, Visual Inspection with Acetic Acid and with Lugol’s Iodine alone or in combination to detect a pre-cancerous lesion in rural Nepal.Methods: It is an analytical cross-sectional study. Convenience sampling technique was used to select participants who were apparently healthy, married, non- pregnant women of aged 20-65 years for cervical cancer screening program. Screening tests were performed on all eligible women (n=2143) after socio-demographic and reproductive health data collection. A biopsy was applied as a gold standard test. Cross-tabulations were used to describe the test sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value, and negative predictive value at a 95% confidence interval. Diagnostic odds ratio was also calculated. Results: A majority, 2143 (94%), of women accepted and participated in this study. The sensitivity vs specificity of cytology, VIA, and VILI was 57.1% vs 98.3%, 71.4% vs 88.8% and 78.6% vs 85.1%, and of the co-testing of ‘Both positive VIA and VILI’ and ‘Either positive VIA or VILI’ was 64.3% vs 85.7% and 90.1% vs 83.7% respectively. Negative predictive value of all tests exceeded 99.7%. Cytology had the highest Diagnostic odds ratio (64.9), followed by the co-test ‘Either positive VIA or VILI’ (27.7).Conclusions: Cervical cancer screening by co-testing ‘Either positive VIA or VILI’ is more useful than cytology; VIA and or VILI are easy, safe, feasible and well-accepted tests in a low resource setting, Nepal.

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