The Most Frequent HPV Genotypes in Women with Cervical Cancer in Southwest of Iran

Cervical cancer ranked as the most common cancer of women in developing countries. Human Papillomaviruses (HPVs) belongs to the Papillomaviridea family, which is able to infect humans. Some HPV types are the causes of getting cervix cancer and it is clear that persistent infection, with a high - risk HPV genotypes, is known to be a major carcinogenic factor. Determining the HPV genotypes distribution in women with cervical cancer in Khuzestan province, which is located in the southwest of Iran, to help design better preventive and also therapeutic strategies for promoting women health. A total of 75 archival cervical carcinoma tissue samples were studied for the presence of HPV DNA and determination of the genotypes by PCR and Sequencing. Genomic DNA was extracted from the FFPE cervical tissues and then subjected for the PCR based amplification with subsequent direct sequencing of the HPV positive PCR products. The mean age of patients was 56. There were 42 samples with HPV DNA by using GP5+ and GP6+ primers. The result of HPV genotyping have been distinguished as follow: 33 samples as HPV-16, 4 samples as HPV-18, 1 sample for each HPV-54, 56 and 58 genotypes, and 2 samples remained unknown. Detecting HPV genotypes absolutely shed light on guidelines cervical cancer screening and vaccination policy in our country and in other developing countries. Collectively, our results suggest that HPV-16 is the frequent high - risk HPV type in our geographical area. HPV genotype testing, as a primary screening tool, plays an important role in cervical cancer prevention and therefore, it is a strongly recommended vaccination against HPV, especially for high school girls be included in the national immunization program.