Prevalence and distribution of HPV 16 and 18 with its epidemiological profile among cervical cancer patients: A prospective study from regional cancer centre of Gujarat, Western India

Cervical cancer (CC) is the leading cause of morbidity and mortality due to cancer among women in Indian. This study was conducted to determine the prevalence and distribution of HPV16/ 18 and epidemiological profile of CC patients from, Gujarat Western India.CC biopsy specimens of 400 patients were analyzed for HPV16 and 18 by type-specific PCR. In our study 74% of CC cases were positive for HPV, 67% had HPV16, 14.8% had HPV18 and 7.7% had both HPV16/18. The median age of the women with CC was 50 years and peak incidence (31.8%) was between 40 to 50 years. Majorities (68.5%) were postmenopausal. The median age of marriage was 20years. Squamos cell carcinoma (SCC) was found in 91% and adenocarcinoma (ADC) in 7.3% of the patients. As per study 7.8%, 16.3%, 58% and 2.5% of CC patients presented in FIGO stage I, II, III, and IV respectively. HPV16 was exhibited in, 68.8% and 66.4%, HPV18 in 14.9% and 15.9% of pre and postmenopausal patients respectively. HPV16 and HPV 18 positivity was 68.7% and 51.7% and 13.2% and 31% in SCC and in ADC respectively. HPV16 infection was higher in stage I and HPV18 in stage IV malignancy.There were two peaks of HPV16, first between 21 to 30 and second between 51 to 60 years among CC patients. HPV 16 is highly prevalent among all groups. In patients with adenocarcinoma, Stage IV malignancy & who had marriage before 18years, incidence of HPV18 was relatively high.