The detection of human papilloma virus 16 L1 capsid protein and p16 in cervical lesions

Abstract

Background Cervical cancer is the second most common type of cancer in women worldwide and also the second most common female malignancy in Mongolia. The association of p16 and hr-HPV in Asia and in more particular in Mongolia are still relatively unexplored. So we aimed to detect the immunohistochemistry expression of p16 and L1 protein of HPV16 and to investigate the combined expression of these markers in cervical lesions. Methods A total of 96 cases were selected from the records of Pathology services, National Cancer center of Mongolia. There were 50 cases diagnosed as LSIL and 46 cases diagnosed as HSIL. The immunohistochemical staining with p16 and HPV 16 L1 were done on all cases. Results The positive rate of HPV 16 L1 capsid protein was identified 74% in LSIL cases and 52% in HSIL cases.There were a significant difference for HPV16 in HSIL and LSIL groups.Immunohistochemistry of p16 staining shows 76% in LSIL cases and 72% in HSIL cases. There was not a statistically significant difference for p16 in HSIL and LSIL groups. A chi square test was used to analyze the result and the obtained p value was <0.05. Conclusion The combination between hr-HPV and p16 is considered to be more useful, having a higher accuracy than hr-HPV or p16 alone. There is still critical need, to find other molecular surrogate markers, which can provide accurate information about which precursor lesions would progress toward cancer.

Keywords

• Immunohistochemistry
• Human papillomavirus
• Cervical cancer
• p16