Background: Cervical carcinomas are second most frequent type of women cancer. Success in diagnostics of this disease is due to the use of Pap-test (cytological smear analysis). However Pap-test gives significant portion of both false-positive and false-negative conclusions. Amendments of the diagnostic procedure are desirable. Aetiological role of papillomaviruses in cervical cancer is established while the role of cellular gene alterations in the course of tumor progression is less clear. Several research groups including us have recently named the protein p16 INK4a as a possible diagnostic marker of cervical cancer. To evaluate whether the specificity of p16 INK4a expression in dysplastic and neoplastic cervical epithelium is sufficient for such application we undertook a broader immunochistochemical registration of this protein with a highly p16 INK4a -specific monoclonal antibody.

Background: High risk type human papilloma viruses (HR-HPV) induce carcinomas of the uterine cervix by expressing viral oncogenes E6 and E7. Oncogene E7 of HR-HPV disrupts the pRb/E2F interaction, which negatively regulates the S phase entry. Expression of tumor suppressor p16 ink4a drastically increases in majority of HR-HPV associated carcinomas due to removal of pRb repression. The p16 ink4a overexpression is an indicator of an aberrant expression of viral oncogenes and may serve as a marker for early diagnostic of cervical cancer. On the other hand, in 25-57% of cervical carcinomas hypermethylation of the p16 INK4a promoter has been demonstrated using a methylation-specific PCR, MSP. To evaluate a potential usage of the p16 INK4a 5' CpG island hypermethylation as an indicator of tumor cell along with p16 ink4a overexpression, we analyzed the methylation status of p16 INK4a in cervical carcinomas

Medical histories of 101 urothelial bladder cancer patients were compared with the results of morphological analysis and biomolecular detection of human papilloma viruses (HPV) in the tumor specimens. DNA of HPV16 (the major type of virus responsible for appearance of cervical carcinoma) was detected in 38 specimens, while mRNA of E6 and E7 oncogenes and E7 oncoprotein of HPV16 were observed in 13 specimens. HPV-positive bladder cancer was characterized by higher degree of cell anaplasia than HPV-negative cancer; in the primary bladder tumor, HPV was detected more often than in recurrent bladder cancer. These data attest to involvement of HPV16 in the genesis of bladder cancer. No correlations of HPV status of bladder tumor with patient's sex, age, and invasion into the muscle layer were revealed.

No abstract

A battery of tests for detection human papillomavirus DNA, mRNA corresponding to viral oncogenes, and viral oncoprotein E7 in cancer bladder urothelium was piloted in 35 samples of bladder cancer. DNA of human papillomavirus type 16 (causes cervical cancer) was found in 16 (46%) samples; E6/E7 oncogene transcript and E7 oncoprotein of human papillomavirus type 16 were detected in 10 and 7 human papillomavirus DNA-positive samples, respectively. These findings attest to association of bladder cancer with human papillomavirus in Russia.