Detection of human papillomavirus-16 in ovarian malignancy

Abstract

Human papillomavirus is the causal factor for cervical cancer. However, the role of HPV infection in ovarian cancer is unclear. This study aimed to determine the presence of human papillomavirus-16 (HPV-16) in ovarian cancer tissues. Archived human ovarian cancer tissues (N=54 cases, 50 are epithelial cancer, four are nonepithelial cancer) embedded in paraffin blocks were used. Controls are 30 nonmalignant ovarian tissue blocks. In situ hybridisation (ISH) and immunohistochemistry (IHC) were used to detect the presence of HPV-16 and p53 expression. In all, 52 or 36% of the epithelial ovarian tumours detected by ISH or IHC, respectively, were HPV-16 E6 positive. In contrast, only 6.7% of normal ovarian tissues were HPV-16 positive proved by ISH. Human papillomavirus-16 infection was significantly higher in cancer tissues compared to controls with an odds ratio of 16.7 (95% confidence interval [CI]=3.2-71.4, P<0.01). No significant correlation between HPV-16 infection and histological types of cancer was found (P>0.05). p53 gene expression was detected in 42% epithelial ovarian cancers. No correlation between p53 expression and HPV-16 infection was found. The results showed the presence of HPV-16 E6 in ovarian carcinoma, suggesting that HPV infection might play a role in ovarian carcinogenesis.

Figure 1

HPV-16 E6 in ovarian cancers by ISH, (A) sample no. 990917 and (B) sample no. 990193. The purple blue signals representing the expression of the E6 mRNA are at cytoplasm in the tumour cells. (A, B: original magnification × 100).

Figure 2

HPV-16 E6 in ovarian cancers by IHC, (A) sample No. 990917 and (B) sample no. 990589. The brown signals representing the expression of the E6 protein are mainly at cytoplasm in the tumour cells. (A, B: original magnification × 100).