Human papillomavirus (HPV) genotype distribution in penile carcinoma: Association with clinic pathological factors

Penile carcinoma (PC) is a rare, highly mutilating disease, common in developing countries. The evolution of penile cancer includes at least two independent carcinogenic pathways, related or unrelated to HPV infection.

To estimate the prevalence, identify HPV genotypes, and correlate with clinicopathological data on penile cancer.

A retrospective cohort study involving 183 patients with PC undergoing treatment in a referral hospital in Goiânia, Goiás, in Midwestern Brazil, from 2003 to 2015. Samples containing paraffin embedded tumor fragments were subjected to detection and genotyping by INNO-LiPA HPV. The clinicopathological variables were subjected to analysis with respect to HPV positivity and used prevalence ratio (PR), adjusted prevalence ratio (PRa) and 95% confidence interval (CI) as statistical measures.

The prevalence of HPV DNA in PC was 30.6% (95% CI: 24.4 to 37.6), high-risk HPV 24.9% (95% CI: 18.9 to 31.3), and 62.5% were HPV 16. There was a statistical association between the endpoints HPV infection and HPV high risk, and the variable tumor grade II-III (p = 0.025) (p = 0.040), respectively. There was no statistical difference in disease specific survival at 10 years between the HPV positive and negative patients (p = 0.143), and high and low risk HPV (p = 0.325).

The prevalence of HPV infection was 30.6%, and 80.3% of the genotypes were identified as preventable by anti-HPV quadrivalent or nonavalent vaccine. HPV infections and high-risk HPV were not associated with penile carcinoma prognosis in this study.

PloS one. 2018 Jun 27*** epublish ***

Lyriane Apolinário de Araújo, Adriano Augusto Peclat De Paula, Hellen da Silva Cintra de Paula, Jessica Enocêncio Porto Ramos, Brunna Rodrigues de Oliveira, Keila Patrícia Almeida De Carvalho, Rafael Alves Guimarães, Rita de Cássia Gonçalves de Alencar, Eliza Carla Barroso Duarte, Silvia Helena Rabelo Santos, Vera Aparecida Saddi, Megmar Aparecida Dos Santos Carneiro

Institute of Tropical Pathology and Public Health, Federal University of Goiás, Goiânia, Goiás, Brazil., Department of Urological Oncology, Araujo Jorge Hospital, Goiânia, Goiás, Brazil., Department of Biological and Biomedical Sciences, Pontifical Catholic University of Goiás, Goiânia, Goiás, Brazil., Pathology Department, Araujo Jorge Hospital, Goiânia, Goiás, Brazil., Department of Pathology, University of Brasília, Brasília, Federal District, Brazil., Faculty of Pharmacy, Federal University of Goiás, Goiânia, Goiás, Brazil.