Detection of human papillomavirus type 16 oncogen E7 in surgical materials from Russian prostate cancer patients

Abstract

Introduction. High indices of prostate cancer (PC) incidence and mortality as well as high speed of growth of these figures testify to urgency of research into PC origin as well as means of its prophylaxis. The problem of possible PC association with oncogenic human papillomaviruses (HPV) is still being disputable. Objective: to test whether surgical materials from PC patients in Russia harbour E7 oncogene of HPV type 16 (HPV16), the main HPV type responsible for cervical cancer. Materials and methods. Prostate tissues excised in the course of radical prostatectomy from 17 PC patients were tested by polymerase chain reaction. For better DNA preservation cryopreserved tumor specimens not treated with either formalin or paraffin were used. The PC typical multifocal type of growth was taken into account by microdissecting of cryostate cuts to accumulate homogeneous cells (cancerous, dysplastic or normal). Results. HPV16 E7 was registered in prostate tissues of 7 patients out of 17 examined including all those 5 cases for which DNA had been isolated from homogeneous sites of cancer cells. Conclusion. The result obtained enables one to admit that HPV16 may be harbored in prostates of Russian PC patients not infrequently.