Human Papillomavirus

Biography

Biography: Veronica Villagra Carron

Abstract

Cervical cancer is the leading cause of cancer death in women in developing countries. Persistent infection with human papillomavirus (HPV) is a necessary factor in premalignant lesions and cervical cancer. The Pap smear is the method most commonly used to detect the cervical cancer and its combination with the detection of viral DNA six months post-treatment increases effectiveness to identify women treated which are at risk with residual/recurrent lesion. The aim was to describe the frequency of high-risk HPV (HR) in treated women for squamous intraepithelial lesion (SIL) who attended the Cervical Pathology Service of Hospital San Pablo from January to December/2014. It was a descriptive cross section study which included 80 patients who attended the service for post-treatment control. The 4800 Cobas HPV Test (Roche) was used, which detects HPV-16 and 18 and a pool of 10 HR-HPV (31, 33, 35, 39, 45, 51, 52, 56, 58 & 59) and two "probable" high risks (66 & 68). Viral infection was found in 7.5% (6/80) of patients treated; identifying HPV-16 in 3/6 of positive cases. In Paraguay there is a high incidence of pre-neoplastic lesions and cervical cancer and it remains a public health problem. The observed data suggest that the use of this system for viral detection can lead to optimize the post-treatment monitoring and the identification of HPV-16 and 18 could contribute to the selection of patients at increased risk of developing cervical injury and they should undergo to frequent and careful monitoring.