DETECTION OF HUMAN PAPILLOMAVIRUS DNA AND STATE OF P53 GENE IN JAPANESE PENILE CANCER

The frequency of integration with human papillomavirus (HPV) and its g enotypes in Japanese penile cancer was examined with relation to p53 g ene mutations using polymerase chain reaction amplification. Tissues w ere obtained from 13 patients (eight from freshly frozen and five from paraffin-embedded samples). HPV DNA was detected in seven out of the 13 (54%), and their genotypes were type 16 in four, type 31 in one and type 33 in two cases. Neither HPV-detected nor -undetected tissues sh owed mutated alterations in exons 4-9 of p53 genes. The results sugges t HPV to be, at least to some extent, involved in the oncogenesis of p enile cancer, and that p53 gene mutations may not correlate with the d evelopment of penile cancer.