Human papilloma virus and esophageal squamous cell carcinoma.

Human papilloma virus (HPV) has been suggested as an etiology of esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (SCC). The aim of this study was to investigate the prevalence of HPV infection in esophageal SCCs in our region with strict contamination control to prevent false positive results. Thirty cases of esophageal squamous cell carcinomas were chosen by simple random selection in a period of two years. PCR for target sequence of HPV L1 gene was performed on nucleic acid extracted from samples by means of GP5+/GP6+ primers. All tissue samples in both case and control groups were negative for HPV-DNA. Although the number of cases in this study was limited, the contribution of HPV in substantial number of esophageal SCCs in our region is unlikely.