Human papillomavirus (HPV) DNA in penile carcinomas in Argentina: Analysisof primary tumors and lymph nodes

Among sexually transmitted diseases, infection by human papillomavirus (HPV ) has become one of the most important. On the other hand, though epidemiol ogical data show that some HPV types are closely associated with cervical c ancer, few reports have been found with reference to penile carcinoma becau se of its rare occurrence. The aim of this study was to investigate the rel ationship between HPV infection and penile cancer in Argentina. A retrospec tive study was carried out on 38 white men with penile squamous-cell carcin oma. Sixty-five archival fixed biopsies taken from 34 primary penile tumors , 25 nodal metastases, 1 skin "satellite" metastasis and 5 histologically n ormal lymph nodes were used as specimens. HPV detection and typing were car ried out by the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) using generic primers, comb ined with single-stranded conformational polymorphism (SSCP) analysis. HPV DNA was found in 71% patients, corresponding 81% of them to "high risk" typ es, with predominance of HPV 18. Both primary tumors and metastases showed concordance of HPV occurrence and type in both lesions. In 3 patients, HPV 16 was detected not only in primary tumors and metastases, but also in hist ologically normal lymph nodes. Our data indicate that most penile carcinoma s in Argentine patients are etiologically-related to HPV, especially to "hi gh risk" genital types. The agreement in HPV detection between primary tumo rs and metastases suggests a potential viral role in tumor progression. HPV detection in otherwise histologically normal lymph nodes might be useful a s early marker of a metastatic process. J. Med. Virol. 61:65-69, 2000. (C) 2000 Wiley-Liss, Inc.