Human papillomavirus (HPV) DNA sequences in oral precancerous lesions and squamous cell carcinoma demonstrated by in situ hybridization

Abstract

A series of routinely processed, paraffin‐embedded biopsies from 73 surgically treated oral precancerous lesions (OPL) (22 cases), and oral squamous cell carcinomas (SCC) (51 cases), was first screened using an in situ DNA hybridization technique with a human papillomavirus (HPV) DNA probe cocktail containing the 35S‐labelled DNA of HPV types 6, 11, 13, 16, 18 and 30. The specific HPV types in lesions shown to contain HPV DNA in this procedure were further analysed by using in situ hybridization and the 6 HPV DNA probes separately. A total of 12/73 (16.4%) of the lesions proved to contain HPV DNA; 6/51 (11.8%) carcinomas and 6/21 (28.6%) dysplasias. The most frequent sites of HPV DNA‐positive lesions were palate (4/7; 57%), followed by the floor of the mouth (2/8; 25%), the tongue and gingiva (11.8%). HPV 13 or HPV 30 were not found in any of the lesions studied. HPV 11 DNA was demonstrated in 2 mild dysplasia lesions, but not in carcinomas. One additional mild dysplasia proved to contain HPV 6 DNA. HPV 16 DNA was present in 5 biopsies; 3 carcinomas and 2 dysplasias. In one of the HPV 16‐positive carcinomas, HPV 18 DNA was simultaneously present. HPV 18 alone was found in 3 additional carcinomas and in one moderate dysplasia lesion. The results confirm the recently reported evidence on HPV involvement in OPL and oral cancer. The implications of these findings are discussed in terms of the possible HPV etiology of oral SCC. The use of the in situ DNA hybridization as a powerful tool (enabling the localization of specific HPV DNA sequences and the proper classification of the lesion at the same site) in the study of routinely processed oral biopsies is strongly advocated.

Incidence of Low Risk Human Papillomavirus in Oral Cancer: A Real Time PCR Study on 278 Patients

“…In another series, HPV 6, 11, 16 and 18 DNA were found in 6/51 oral SCCs and in 6/21 oral precancer lesions (22). Loning et al (23) confirmed this report, detecting HPV 11 and 16 DNA in 3/6 oral carcinomas.…”

Human Papillomavirus DNA in Biopsies of Oral Tissues

“…Oral cancer biopsies have also been shown, in some cases, to contain HPV sequences, de Villiers et al (1985) and Adler-Storthz et al (1986b) detected HPV-2 DNA in oral squamous and verrucous carcinomas, and DNAs of HPV-16 (de Villiers et al, 1985;Maitland et al, 1987) and HPV-18 (Syrjanen et al, 1988) have been reported in other oral squamous celt carcinomas. Additionally, Maitland et al (1987Maitland et al ( , 1989 found that a large proportion of normal oral mucosal samples, as well as carcinomas, exclusively contain HPV-16 sequences, which in most cases varied from the prototype virus in their PstI restriction pattern.…”

Human Papillomavirus Infection in Oral Verrucous Carcinoma: Genotyping Analysis and Inverse Correlation with p53 Expression

“…p53 expression was inversely cor- infections in uterine cervical lesions, their prevalence in oral lesions is highly variable, e.g. 0-78% for oral SCC [8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23] . This variability may stem from differences in the methods used to detect HPV-DNA such as PCR, Southern blot hybridization and in situ hybridization (ISH).…”