From National Cancer Institute on HPV

[Guest guest]

HPV Found in Half of Patients with Colorectal Cancer

Human papillomavirus (HPV) infection was found in more than half of patients

with colorectal cancer, an NCI study reported in the April 15 Clinical

Cancer Research.

Researchers in the HIV and AIDS Malignancy Branch of NCI's CCR found that 28

of 55 (51 percent) of the colorectal cancer patients studied were positive

for HPV based on examination of samples from tumors and adjacent tissues.

Colorectal tissue from 10 control individuals, who didn't have colorectal

cancer,

were all negative, they noted.

The findings confirm previous controversial studies linking HPV with

colorectal cancer, but the NCI researchers were careful to avoid the

cross-contamination of tissue samples in the detection that may have affected

earlier

research.

Dr. Zhi-Ming Zheng, principal investigator in the study, explained the

precautions taken: " All samples of normal tissues taken from healthy subjects

along with counterpart tumor and tumor-adjacent tissues from colon cancer

patients had to be examined in a blinded manner, using three separate nested

polymerase chain reactions, each targeting a different region (L1, E6, and E2)

of

the virus genome. " A positive sample had to be confirmed in multiple repeats to

be considered a real positive for HPV, he added.

Dr. Zheng addressed the implications of the study: " Establishing a firm

relationship between HPV infection and the development of colorectal cancer

will

require further research. However, it is quite likely that diseases caused by

HPV infection will soon become preventable by vaccination. If this study is

confirmed and a substantial proportion of colorectal cancers are ultimately

found to be etiologically associated with HPV infections, this would help us

to further understand the oncogenesis of colorectal cancer and might change

our views on its prevention and treatment. "