Molecular typing for detection of high-risk human papillomavirus is a useful tool for distinguishing primary bladder carcinoma from secondary involvement of uterine cervical carcinoma in the urinary bladder

Aims: For patients with carcinoma of the urinary bladder and uterine cervix, distinguishing between metastasis and a second primary carcinoma has significant prognostic and therapeutic implications. The aim of this study was to investigate the prevalence of high-risk human papillomavirus (HR-HPV) in cervical carcinoma with secondary involvement of the bladder and primary bladder carcinoma, in order to explore whether the detection of HR-HPV could help to differentiate between the two.

Methods and results: Paired bladder and cervix carcinoma specimens from 37 patients with cervical carcinoma with bladder involvement, four patients with bladder carcinoma with uterine cervical involvement and two patients with double primaries were studied with quantitative multiplex polymerase chain reaction and chromogenic in-situ hybridization. Three hundred and seventy-five bladder carcinomas and 220 cervical carcinomas were analysed as controls. All cases of cervical carcinoma with bladder involvement showed concordant HR-HPV-positive patterns. The four cases of bladder carcinoma with uterine involvement were negative for HR-HPV. HR-HPV was detected in the cervical carcinoma but not in the bladder carcinoma of the patients with double primaries. HR-HPV was detected in 91.9% of cervical carcinomas but in none of the bladder carcinomas in the control group.

Conclusions: Molecular typing for HR-HPV detection is useful to distinguish bladder carcinoma from secondary involvement of cervical carcinoma.