Human papillomavirus types 16 and 18 are not involved in human prostate carcinogenesis: analysis of archival human prostate cancer specimens by differential polymerase chain reaction.

Human papilloma viruses (HPV) have been implicated in the pathogenesis of a variety of malignancies, especially in carcinomas of the female genital tract. Recently, based on observations using the polymerase chain reaction amplification assay, HPV types 16 and 18 specific DNA sequences have been detected in prostate cancer specimens obtained by transurethral resection. Since HPV types 16 and 18 have been shown to possess oncogenic potential, an association between HPV infection and prostatic carcinoma has been suggested. In order to exclude potentially HPV-colonized urethral mucosa from analysis and restrict our study to predominantly malignant tissue, cancerous areas from a series of 30 paraffin-embedded prostate adenocarcinomas were microdissected and analyzed for the presence of HPV 16 or HPV 18 specific sequences by a modification of PCR (D-PCR) and Southern blot analysis. Despite the high sensitivity of our analytical technique, we found no evidence of HPV-DNA of either type in any of the 30 primary prostate cancers. In contrast, both HPV 16 (2/8 specimens) and HPV 18 (2/8 specimens) DNA was detected in randomly chosen cervical carcinomas using the D-PCR methodology. Our data would indicate that the oncogenic HPV-types 16 and 18 are unlikely effectors of prostate carcinogenesis.