PAPILLOMAVIRUS AND ANAL CARCINOMA

Human papilloma virus (HPV; 16 and 18) is known to play an important e tiologic role in cervical dysplasia, but its relationship with anal ca rcinoma is still unclear. Surgical samples from 80 female patients tre ated for anal epidermoid carcinoma in the Policlinic of Surgery in Gen eva between 1976 and 1989 were retrospectively studied. Of these, HPV detection was performed in 41 whose DNA was preserved well enough to a llow such an analysis. Seventeen (42%) samples contained HPV, with a h igh percentage of high risk HPV (15/41, 36%). Thirty-eight of the 80 p atients had a cervical smear, of which 18% revealed cervical carcinoma . When compared with epidemiological data, the results of this study s uggest that genital HPV infection predisposes not only to cervical can cer, but also to anal carcinoma, possibly by means of contiguous conta mination.