Recent advances in understanding and preventing human papillomavirus-related disease

Abstract

High-risk human papillomaviruses (hrHPV) are responsible for anogenital and oropharyngeal cancers, which together account for at least 5% of cancers worldwide. Industrialised nations have benefitted from highly effective screening for the prevention of cervical cancer in recent decades, yet this vital intervention remains inaccessible to millions of women in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), who bear the greatest burden of HPV disease. While there is an urgent need to increase investment in basic health infrastructure and rollout of prophylactic vaccination, there are now unprecedented opportunities to exploit recent scientific and technological advances in screening and treatment of pre-invasive hrHPV lesions and to adapt them for delivery at scale in resource-limited settings. In addition, non-surgical approaches to the treatment of cervical intraepithelial neoplasia and other hrHPV lesions are showing encouraging results in clinical trials of therapeutic vaccines and antiviral agents. Finally, the use of next-generation sequencing to characterise the vaginal microbial environment is beginning to shed light on host factors that may influence the natural history of HPV infections. In this article, we focus on recent advances in these areas and discuss their potential for impact on HPV disease.

Carcinoma of the urethra

“…In several organ sites, P16 positivity is used as a surrogate for HPV infection and the strong positivity in more than 70% of the tumor tissue is considered indicative of HPV infection. (23–28) In the vast majority of our cases, P16 was strongly positive in more than 70% of the tumor tissue suggesting that HPV infection may be involved in nearly 50% of urethral carcinomas. Unfortunately, there was a minimal overlap between the tumors which were stained for P16 and those for which the HPV status was analyzed by the RNA-scope analysis.…”

“…The analysis of 130 cases classified as primary urethral tumors disclosed that 24 of them could be classified microscopically as tumors with specific features such as adenocarcinomas (23), and adenoid cystic carcinoma (1). The remaining 106 were poorly differentiated carcinomas with hybrid squamous and urothelial features, which we defined as primary carcinomas of the urethra, which are the focus of this report.…”

“…The family of HPV viruses, especially those referred to as high risk such as HPV 16 and HPV 18, are implicated in the development of multiple human malignancies(23). The prototypic human malignancy linked to HPV infection is the female uterine cervix carcinoma as well as carcinomas developing in the vagina and vulva(24).…”

Human Papilloma Virus Epidemiology and Subtyping in Head and Neck Squamous Cell Carcinoma by Anatomical Site in Central Greece

“…Human papilloma virus (HPV)-associated cancer accounts for 5% of all cancers worldwide [1,2], and for 29.5% of new cancer cases attributable to infections [3]. HPVs are DNA virus that infect epithelial cells [4].…”