F. Elamin et al., PREVALENCE OF HUMAN-PAPILLOMAVIRUS INFECTION IN PREMALIGNANT AND MALIGNANT LESIONS OF THE ORAL CAVITY IN UK SUBJECTS - A NOVEL METHOD OF DETECTION, Oral Oncology, 34(3), 1998, pp. 191-197
To evaluate the possible role of human papillomavirus (HPV) in oral ne
oplasms, 28 oral squamous cell carcinomas (SCC) and 12 potentially mal
ignant lesions were analysed for the presence of HPV DNA. A nested pol
ymerase chain reaction (PCR) approach, using two sets of HPV consensus
primers to the L1 region, was used, which was able to detect a broad
spectrum of HPV types. HPV DNA was detected in 14/28 (50%) carcinomas
and 4/12 (33%) precancerous lesions. A novel approach based on labelli
ng the PCR products with P-32 and the separation of radioactively labe
lled products on an 8% polyacrylamide gel increased the sensitivity of
the detection and enabled the identification of the HPV types. The ty
ping of HPV was subsequently confirmed by direct DNA sequencing. HPV 6
and HPV 16 were the only HPV types detected and seven tumours harbour
ed both types. Our results suggest that HPVs may be an important aetio
logical factor in the development of oral cancer. The detection proced
ure ensured sensitivity and consistency of the detection of low copy n
umbers of the virus DNA. The presence of HPV in 33% of premalignant ti
ssues suggests that HPV infection may be an early event in the maligna
nt transformation of oral SCC. There was no statistically significant
association between viral infection and tumour grade or stage. (C) 199
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