RELATION BETWEEN HPV-16 SEROLOGY AND CLINICOPATHOLOGICAL DATA IN CERVICAL-CARCINOMA PATIENTS - PROGNOSTIC VALUE OF ANTI-E6 AND OR ANTI-E7 ANTIBODIES/

To investigate the clinical significance of the enhanced sensitivity o f antibody detection by radio immunoprecipitation assays (RIPA), using in vitro translated HPV-16 E6 and E7 proteins, over synthetic-peptide enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA), RIPA for HPV-16 E6 and E7 were performed. The results obtained with E6 and E7 RTPA were related to clinico-pathological data from cervical carcinoma patients positive for HPV type 16 DNA in their primary tumour. The data obtained with E 6 and E7 RIPA were then compared to the results obtained using the E7/ 6-35 synthetic-peptide ELISA. The prevalence of antibodies to E6, E7, E6 and/or E7 and E6 and E7, as determined by RIPA, was significantly h igher in cervical cancer patients than in both controls and cervical i ntraepithelial neoplasia patients. Odds ratios, calculated for cervica l carcinoma patients versus controls, ranged from 7.4 to 15.4. Antibod ies to E6 and/or E7 were largely restricted to patients with HPV DNA i n their primary tumour. Analysis of the relation between prevalence of antibodies to E6 and E7 and clinico-pathological parameters was limit ed to 85 patients positive for HPV-16 The strongest relation with clin ico-pathological data, such as lesion size, lymph node involvement, an d prognosis, was found for E7 synthetic-peptide ELISA, whereas E6 and E7 RIPA did hot reach significance. The significance of these findings is discussed.