Objective: To explore the relationship between loads of human papillomavirus in cervical carcinoma and cervical intraepithelial neoplasia.
Methods: From December 2001 to May 2002, 9075 married women aged from 35 to 50 years who lived in the areas with a high incidence of cervical carcinoma of Shanxi Province were screened high risk types of human papillomavirus (HPV) infection using hybrid capture II (HC-II). Of them, 2087 women with positive human papillomavirus further underwent colposcopy and multi-focal directed punch biopsies plus endocervical currettage.
Results: Two thousand and eighty-seven women were found with positive human papillomavirus infection, comprising 1402 (67.2%) women who were diagnosed as cervicitis, 663 (31.8%) women diagnosed as cervical intraepithelial neoplasia [including cervical intraepithelial neoplasia (CIN) I to III], and 22 (1.1%) women diagnosed as cervical squamous cell carcinoma (SCC). HPV-DNA loads of women with chronic and acute cervicitis were 150 +/- 11 and 108 +/- 13, respectively, with no significant difference between two groups statistically (P = 0.225). HPV-DNA loads for women with CIN I, CIN II and CIN III were 332 +/- 29, 358 +/- 35, and 370 +/- 31, respectively, all significantly higher than that of women with cervicitis (P = 0.000), but there were no significant differences among three groups (P > 0.05). HPV-DNA loads of women with cervical squamous cell carcinoma was 593 +/- 86, much higher than those of women with varied grades of cervical intraepithelial neoplasia and cervicitis (P < 0.05 and P < 0.01).
Conclusions: The new technology using HC-II is an effective method to detect HPV infection in cervix. Viral loads of HPV-DNA increase with severity of cervical neoplasia. So it could be used for screening primary cervical carcinoma.