Frequency of E6 and E7 Oncogenes of Human Papillomavirus Types 16 and 18 in Cervical Cancer Patients in Pakistani Women

Prevalence of E6/E7 oncogenes of Human Papillomavirus (HPV) types 16 and 18 have been studied in cervical cancer patients in Pakistani population. DNA extracted from 83 formalin fixed paraffin embedded cervical cancer samples was used for PCR amplification using primers specific for E6/E7 oncogenes of HPV type 16 and 18. Sixty five out of 83 cervical cancer samples were found to be positive for E6 and E7 oncogenes in HPV 16/18 subtypes (78.31%). Out of HPV positive samples, 63 (96.92%) cases were positive for HPV 16 and only 2 (3.07) % were positive for HPV 18. In HPV16 positive cases, mean age was found to be 35.753 +/- L11.231 and 63.5% cases were >= 40 years. Regarding HPV 18 positive samples, one was 40 years of age with moderately differentiated histological grade and the other was 60 years of age with poorly differentiated cervical cancer. In HPV 16/18 positive samples, 52.31% were of moderately differentiated histological grade, 27.69% were of poorly differentiated histological grade and 20% were of well differentiated histological grade. In HPV 16 positive cases, 57 were of squamous cell carcinoma type and seven cases were adenocarcinoma. Two HPV 18 positive cases were of adenocarcinoma variety. It is concluded that frequency of E6 and E7 oncogenes in HPV 16/-18 subtypes in cervical cancer patients is about 78% of which 97% were positive for HPV 16 and only 3% were positive for HPV 18.