Molecular tests to detect human papillomavirus infection in patients with cervical dysplasia and invasive cervical cancer in Saudi Arabia

Abstract

Objectives: Essentially all cases of cervical cancer are caused by infection with oncogenic types of human papillomavirus (HPV). The aim of this study to determine the the actual HPV subtype that present in cervical dysplasia and invasive disease in Saudi population Methods: A prospective study was conducted at KAUH during the period of March 2007 to December 2008. mean age 48.18 years, who attend the KAAU Hospital for cervical biopsy due to the suspected diagnosis of cervical dysplasia or invasive disease, based on previous suspicious Pap smear. HPV DNA Hybridization by Hybrid Capture 2 (HC2) was performed on cervical biopsies of these patients for the detection of HPV infection. Results: There were 45 patients had cervical biopsy taken for HPV testing. Seven patient were excluded because there found to have no cervical dysplasia on final pathology review. We had 17 cases with cervical dysplasia and 21 patients with invasive disease. Mean age was 48 years. The results obtained by HC2 were positive in cervical dysplasia, invasive disease and overall in 5(29.4 %), 13(61.9%) and 18 (47.4%) respectively. Conclusions: The use of molecular detection of HPV DNA by HC2 in biopsy is feasible and effective. Although our sample size is very small, our results confirm the finding that HPV contribute to the etiological factor of cervical cancer in Muslim society. the presence of other factor or subtype of this virus in all other cases of cervical cancer in our society.