TYPE-SPECIFIC PREVALENCE OF GENITAL HUMAN PAPILLOMAVIRUSES IN BENIGN,PREMALIGNANT, AND MALIGNANT BIOPSIES IN PATIENTS FROM GREECE

Background and Objectives: More than 30 different human papillomavirus (HPV) types infect the anogenital mucosa and are responsible for a va riety of benign, premalignant, and malignant lesions including cervica l cancer, The goal of this study was to determine the distribution of individual HPV types in various grades of cervical precancerous lesion s cinema in patients from Greece, Study Design: Specimens were analyze d for HPV-DNA sequences by polymerase chain reaction and Southern blot hybridization, Polymerase chain reaction analysis was performed with consensus and type-specific primers. Restriction length fragment polym orphism analysis and/or hybridization of the general primer polymerase chain reaction product were used for HPV typing. Results: In cervical carcinomas HPV-16 was found in 56%, HPV-18 in 23%,and HPV-31 in 6% of the HPV-positive patients, In precancerous lesions HPV-16 was found i n 13% of low-grade squamous intraepithelial lesions (LG-SIL) as compar ed with 41% of high-grade squamous intraepithelial lesions (LG-SIL) pa tients, HPV-18 was found at similar frequency both in LG-SIL (13%) and HG-SIL (14%), HPV-31 and HPV-33 were detected at moderate levels both in LG-SIL (11%) and in HG-SIL (14%). In addition, HPV-53 and HPV-66 w ere detected at low frequency in LG-SIL (2%), whereas HPV-51 was found only in HG-SIL (4%), Finally, HPV-6 was associated with 13% of LG-SIL . Conclusions: Overall, the prevalence rate of the genital HPV types w as in the range previously described for many western countries but th e HPV-18 positivity was higher than that reported for most European co untries.