High-risk human papilloma virus genotypes in cervical carcinoma of Serbian women: Distribution and association with pathohistological findings

A significant role of high-risk Human papilloma viruses (HR HPV) in the development of cervical carcinoma is well known. HR HPV 16 and 18 account for approximately 70% of all cases of cervical cancer worldwide. The incidence of cervical cancer in Serbia, is one of the highest in Europe. The aim of our study was to investigate the distribution of HR HPV types in cervical carcinoma of Serbian women, as well as association between the HPV types and pathohistological findings. The study included 80 archival cervical cancer tissues from the same number of patients. The presence of HPV DNA was determined using MY09/MY11 primers for L1 gene and GP1/GP2 primers for E1 gene. HPV was detected in 78.75% tissues. HR HPV genotypes found in the decreasing order of frequency were: HPV16 (80.39%), HPV33 (7.84%), HPV58 (5.88%), HPV18 (1.96%), HPV45 (1.96%) and HPV53 (1.96%). The examined tissues were 91.25% squamous cell carcinomas and 8.75% adenocarcinoma. The high frequency of HPV 16 was observed in both types of carcinoma (80.8% and 75%, respectively) while the prevalence of HPV18 was low. These results may contribute to the implementation of cervical carcinoma prevention program in Serbia, including the selection of the most appropriate vaccine and immunization program.