Background: The relationship among the presence of human papillomavirus (HPV) in tumor cells, DNA ploidy, and the prognosis of squamous cell carcinoma of the uterine cervix was studied.
Methods: HPV 16 was detected using the polymerase chain reaction on paraffin-embedded material from 69 patients with Stage IB and IIA carcinoma of the uterine cervix. The presence or absence of HPV was related to age, survival, and ploidy status as measured by DNA flow cytometry. All patients were treated by radical surgery.
Results: Thirty-four patients had HPV 16, and 35 did not. The mean age of the patients differed statistically significantly between the HPV-positive group (51.1 years) and the HPV-negative group (45.1 years, P = 0.015). No difference was found in the mean DNA index (1.21 versus 1.22, P = 0.85) or 5-year survival rate (85% versus 86%, P = 0.87) between the two groups.
Conclusions: The high prevalence of HPV 16 in cervical cancer, which appeared to be correlated with age (in combination with its presence in diploid and aneuploid tumors), indicated the important role of HPV 16 in the evolution of cervical cancer. However, using stepwise Cox regression analysis, the presence of HPV 16 had no additional prognostic value over lymph node metastases findings.