Prevalence of human papillomavirus types 16 and 18 in cervical carcinomas: a study by dot and Southern blot hybridization and the polymerase chain reaction.

Histologically classified biopsies from 83 women with invasive cervical carcinoma were analyzed by dot blot hybridization for human papillomavirus (HPV) types 16 and 18 infection. Sixty of the 83 (72.3%) were found to contain HPV DNA, of which 43 (51.8%) contained HPV 16 DNA, 12 (14.5%) contained HPV 18 DNA and 5 (6.0%) contained both HPV 16 and 18 DNAs. Southern blot analysis on 65 specimens gave similar results. Of 23 specimens negative by dot blot, 21 were tested by the polymerase chain reaction. Seventeen of the 21 were positive for HPV DNA, of which 13 contained HPV 16 DNA and 4 contained both HPV 16 and 18 DNAs. In all, 95.1% (77/81) were positive for HPV 16 and/or 18 DNA sequences.