ABSENCE OF HUMAN PAPILLOMAVIRUS DNA DETECTED BY POLYMERASE CHAIN-REACTION IN FRENCH PATIENTS WITH ESOPHAGEAL-CARCINOMA

Background & Aims: Recent studies have suggested that esophageal human papillomavirus infection could be a risk factor for esophageal squamo us cell carcinoma, The aim of this study was to evaluate the prevalenc e of human papillomavirus DNA sequences in the esophagus of French pat ients with esophageal squamous cell carcinoma, Methods: Multiplex poly merase chain reactions with consensus primers directed to the L1 gene or specific primers for human papillomavirus types 6, 11, 16, 18, 31, and 33 directed to E6 gene (40 cycles followed by restriction mapping of the amplified products) were used to determine the presence of huma n papillomavirus DNA sequences in esophageal squamous cell carcinoma ( n = 75), normal adjacent mucosa (n = 49), and metastatic lymphadenopat hies (n = 5), As an internal control, a target located in the embryoni c myosin heavy-chain gene was used in each reaction, Results: Human pa pillomavirus DNA sequences could not be detected in any of the tumoral samples, the normal adjacent mucosa, or the metastatic lymphadenopath ies. Conclusions: Human papillomavirus seems not to be implicated in e sophageal carcinogenesis, at least in French patients, because the vir al genomes are not associated with esophageal squamous cell carcinomas .