ARTIcLe InfO _______________________________________________________________ _____________________

Background In Brazil, penile cancer (PC) is not uncommon. The highest incidence of PC is in the North and Northeast of the country. In addition to phimosis, the Human Papillomavirus (HPV) and Epstein-Baar Virus (EBV) infections are also related as risk factors for PC. The overexpression of p16 INK4a is a surrogate sensitive marker of HPV infection in PC. Objectives To correlate p16 INK4a overexpression and HPV infection status with EBV infection in a series of PC patients from the Amazon region. Methods Tumor tissues from 47 PC cases were analyzed for the presence of HPV and EBV DNA by PCR. All PC patients were diagnosed between 2013 and 2018 at a public reference cancer center hospital in Manaus, Amazonas-Brazil. HPV was genotyped using E7 HPV16/ HPV18 type-specific real-time PCR and the PapilloCheck ® HPV-Screening assay. p16 INK4a expression was evaluated by immunohistochemistry using the automated Ventana ® BenchMark Ultra.

This study aimed to determine the prevalence of and risk factors for high-risk human papillomavirus (HPV) genital infection and precursor lesions of penile cancer among patients infected with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). In total, 276 men with a mean age of 34.6 years were included. All participants were subjected to peniscopic examination under magnification, collection of genital exfoliated cells for detecting HPV types using Hybrid Capture, and biopsy surgery of clinically observable lesions and aceto-white areas for histopathological studies. The prevalence of high-risk HPV types was 43%. Peniscopicy showed clinically visible lesions or aceto-white areas in 75/276 participants (27%), of which genital warts were the most common (22/75; 29%). HIV-positive (HIV(+) ) men with CD4(+) T-cell counts <200 cells/mm(3) showed a higher prevalence of penile lesions. Multivariate logistic regression was applied to identify independent risk factors for high-risk HPV types. The results showed that high-risk HPV was associated with lower education level (OR = 1.89, 95% CI: 1.15-3.13), illicit drug use (OR = 1.80, 95% CI: 1.03-3.14), mulatto ethnicity (OR = 2.51, 95% CI: 1.38-4.54), heterosexual orientation (OR = 2.12, 95% CI: 1.30-3.47) symptomatic AIDS (OR = 2.80, 95% CI: 1.65-4.77), AIDS-associated opportunistic infections (OR = 2.92, 95% CI: 1.78-4.78), on HAART (OR = 2.91, 95% CI: 1.78-4.77), and CD4(+) T-cell count <200 cells/mm(3) (OR = 3.31, 95% CI: 1.84-5.96). Immunocompromised men were more susceptible to developing penile lesions associated with high-risk HPV types.