Laryngeal cancer and human papillomavirus: HPV is absent in the majority of laryngeal carcinomas

Thirty laryngeal carcinomas from patients without pre-existing laryngeal pa pillomatosis were examined by PCR for the presence of HPV DNA. The utmost c are was taken during sectioning of the tissue blocks and DNA-extraction in order to avoid false positive results. Three pairs of consensus primers wer e used: MY9/MY11, GP5+/GP6+ and CPI/CPII. HPV was detected in 1/30 carcinom as. The HPV type present could not be determined, but it was not type 6, 11 , 13, 16, 18, 30, 31, 33, 35 or 45. In other studies the reported frequency of HPV in laryngeal carcinomas, as estimated by PCR, varies between 3-85%. The reasons for this unacceptable variation in reported results are discus sed. The present results indicate that HPV DNA does not have a major role i n malignant rumours of the larynx in patients without pre-existing recurren t laryngeal papillomatosis. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science ireland Ltd. All righ ts reserved.