Human papillomaviruses: Diseases, diagnosis, and a possible vaccine

Understanding and incorporating human papillomavirus testing in cervical cancer screening: a South African perspective

“…Unfortunately, this excellent analytical sensitivity of HPV DNA testing makes it much less clinically speci c. Because of this poor speci city the PPV of HPV DNA for high-grade lesions by biopsy is 15-25%, which can lead to unnecessary colposcopy and biopsy examinations in women with abnormal Pap smears who are positive for hrHPV DNA. 13 HPV DNA testing will also identify those women who are infected with HPV, but do not have severe dysplasia and thus have an 80% chance to clear the infection without treatment. The same positive signal is generated from infected cells that are destined to be cleared without symptoms, to be cleared after mild dysplasia or to develop into cancer.…”

“…If these genes include the viral oncogenes E6 and E7, uncontrolled proliferation of the cell may lead the development of premalignant cervical lesions and eventually to cervical cancer (Figures 2 and 3). 13 E6 and E7 mediate degradation of the tumour suppressors p53 and retinoblastoma protein (pRb) and interfere with cellcycle regulation. E6/E7 proteins from low-risk types are less competent in interfering with p53 and pRb functions than E6/E7 proteins from high-risk types.…”

“…The steps in HPV carcinogenesis 13 With initial HPV infection, the viral DNA is separate from the host DNA. With persistent infection, an integration event may take place, where some viral genes become part of the host DNA.…”

Human Papillomavirus: Flow Cytometry Detection and PCR Analysis, A Comparison Study

“…Most HPV DNA assays such as type-specific polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and Hybrid Capture II (Digene) detect the present of HPV infection despite the fact that only a small proportion of the women infected with a high-oncogenic-risk type will suffer disease that progresses to cancer. Although HPV assays have a high sensitivity, their specificity is low because they detect an infection that in the vast majority of women do not develop cancer and regress spontaneously [7][8][9].…”

HPVTyper: A Software Application for Automatic HPV Typing via PCR-RFLP Gel Electrophoresis

“…Focusing on the case of cervical cancer, the statistics are overwhelming: With 500.000 cases diagnosed every year (Greenblatt, 2005), it is the second leading cause of cancer related deaths after breast cancer for women between 20 and 39 years old (Landis et al, 1999) and one of the leading cancer types affecting women worldwide (Moore, 2006). When the above facts are combined with the variability of oncogenic activity among HPV types, the need for specifying not only whether a patient has been infected by HPV but also the exact infecting types becomes evident.…”