EP279 A cohort retrospective study of the high-risk HPV recurrence in greek women after cervical lesion treatment through detection of viral E6/E7 mRNA expression

Diagnostic performance of HPV E6/E7 mRNA testing towards HPV‐DNA testing and p16/Ki67 immunostaining as a biomarker of high‐risk HPV recurrence in Greek women surgically treated for their cervical lesions

“…As expected, the positivity rates of all three studied HPV‐related biomarkers significantly dropped post‐operatively possibly as an outcome of the surgical excision of the pathological lesion as shown in other studies as well, 10,25,36–39 implying that the persisting positivity of HPV‐mRNA test could be an indicator of incomplete surgical treatment mainly due to involved margins.…”

“…So, HPV‐mRNA test is an indicator of active viral transcription because it detects the increased levels of E6/E7 mRNA molecules that cause genetic instability and amplify the risk of malignant transformation and therefore it can be considered as a potential marker of progressive disease 42,47 . Having shown in a previous study of ours, 25 that alternations in E6/E7 mRNA levels of the five most important high‐risk HPV types (16, 18, 31, 33, 45) occur after CIN treatment and might be considered as a potential predictor of treatment failure and disease recurrence, in this study we evaluated the diagnostic performance of HPV E6/E7 mRNA testing towards HPV‐DNA testing and p16/Ki67 immunostaining as a predictive biomarker of high‐risk HPV recurrence in Greek women surgically treated for their cervical lesions. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study that evaluates all three diagnostic methodologies as predictive tools of surgical CIN treatment status.…”

“…In our study, we used one HPV‐mRNA typing methodology as prognostic index of recurrent HPV infection in women treated for CIN in our Gynecology Department, combined with other parameters including cytology, colposcopy, histology, and other HPV‐related biomarkers. Having shown, in a previous study of ours, that E6/E7 mRNA overexpression can be a promising prognostic tool for detecting patients with increased risk of treatment failure or recurrent disease through persistent biomarker positivity, 25 the aim of this study was to evaluate the diagnostic performance of this biomarker towards HPV‐DNA testing and p16/Ki67 immunocytochemistry in a much more extensive post‐op population setting in order to further support our initial findings that E6/E7 mRNA overexpression can be effectively used as an indicator of successful CIN treatment.…”