PRESENCE OF HUMAN PAPILLOMAVIRUS IN ESOPHAGEAL SQUAMOUS-CELL CARCINOMAS OF HONG-KONG CHINESE AND ITS RELATIONSHIP WITH P53 GENE MUTATION

There is no scientific study that has investigated the association bet ween human papilloma virus (HPV) and p53 mutation in Hong Kong Chinese patients with esophageal cancers. The aim of this survey is to evalua te in details the prevalence and relationship of HPV and P53 mutation in these patients with esophageal squamous cell carcinomas. Fresh tiss ues from the resected specimens of 70 Chinese patients (59 men, 11 wom en) with primary esophageal squamous cell carcinomas (20 well-differen tiated, 36 moderately differentiated, and 14 poorly differentiated squ amous cell carcinomas) were tested for the presence of HPV and p53 mut ation using the polymerase chain reaction (PCR), single-strand conform ational polymorphism (SSCP) analysis, and DNA sequencing. No HPV type 18 was detected, whereas HPV type 16 was identified in 8.6% (6 of 75) of the cases, p53 mutation was found in 44% (31 of 70) of the tumors. The mean ages of HPV-positive and HPV-negative groups of patients were 55 and 64 years, respectively (P = .046, t-test). There was no correl ation between the prevalence of HPV and p53 mutation in these tumors. The presence of HPV and p53 also had no relation to the sex of the pat ients or to the grade of the carcinomas. It is concluded that the over all low prevalence of HPV in esophageal carcinomas may suggest that th e virus may not play an important role in the pathogenesis of these tu mors in Hong Kong Chinese patients. Also, p53 mutation and integrated HPV DNA are not mutually exclusive in esophageal cancer. Copyright (C) 1997 by W.B. Saunders Company.