TRANSITIONAL-CELL CARCINOMA OF THE BLADDER - FAILURE TO DEMONSTRATE HUMAN PAPILLOMAVIRUS DEOXYRIBONUCLEIC-ACID BY IN-SITU HYBRIDIZATION ANDPOLYMERASE CHAIN-REACTION

Human papillomaviruses have been implicated in the pathogenesis of a v ariety of malignancies, particularly those of the anogenital tract. So me recent reports on the presence of human papillomavirus in bladder c ancer have raised the possibility that it might be involved in the dev elopment of this malignancy as well. To study this concept, a series o f 108 transitional cell carcinomas of the bladder were screened for th e presence of human papillomavirus deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) by in s itu hybridization with biotin-labeled human papillomavirus cocktail pr obe and polymerase chain reaction with human papillomavirus L1 consens us primers. Although the positive controls showed strong hybridization signals, no evidence for human papillomavirus DNA was found in any of the bladder carcinomas by in situ hybridization. Similarly, despite t he amplification of a 450 bp product in cervical human papillomavirus lesions (used as positive controls), no signals were obtained in any o f the bladder tumors studied. P-globin gene sequences (110 bp), servin g as internal controls, were consistently amplified from all tumor sam ples, suggesting that cellular DNAs from the carcinoma specimens were sufficient for the amplification reaction. These data indicate that hu man papillomavirus infection is rare in transitional cell carcinoma of the bladder. The significance of these findings is discussed in relat ion to previous reports on human papillomavirus involvement in bladder carcinomas.