HIGH PREVALENCE OF HUMAN PAPILLOMAVIRUS TYPE-16 AND TYPE-18 IN MIDDLE-EAR CARCINOMAS

Chronic suppurative otitis media, averaging 20 or more years of durati on, has been associated with cancer in this region in 40%-80% of cases , Although human papillomaviruses (HPV) have been implicated in many h uman squamous-cell neoplasms, their role in the pathogenesis of middle -ear malignancies remains unexplored. In this study, we investigated t he presence and subtypes of HPV in middle-ear carcinomas, Formalin-fix ed and paraffin-embedded tumor tissues were sampled for DNA extraction . PCR was done with consensus primers, capable of detecting HPV 16, 18 , 31, 33, 52b and 58, Typing of the products generated by consensus pr imers was performed with restriction enzyme digestion, It was found th at a resulting 89% (8/9) of the middle-ear carcinomas contained HPV DN A, Coexistence of HPV 16 and 18 was detected in 3 squamous-cell carcin omas, HPV 16 was detected in 4 squamous cell carcinomas and I adenocar cinoma, The high prevalence of high-risk-type HPV in carcinomas of the middle ear suggests that viral infection may be an important etiologi c component in the carcinogenic process. (C) 1997 Wiley-Liss, Inc.