The detection of human papillomavirus in oesophageal lesions.

The polymerase chain reaction, with nested degenerate primers which amplify a specific fragment of the L1 gene of wide range of human papillomaviruses, was used to determine whether HPV DNA was present in biopsies from various oesophageal lesions. Ten out of 14 (71%) patients with oesophageal carcinoma were positive for HPV DNA either in the tumour biopsies (6/14) or in adjacent tissue (6/9). HPV DNA was detected in 6 of the 41 biopsies (15%) from patients without oesophageal malignancy. Three of these 6 positive were from biopsies with clear cell acanthosis.