Prévalence des infections à papillomavirus (HPV) dans les lésions précancéreuses et cancéreuses du col utérin en Tunisie

Abstract

To investigate the distribution of HPV genotypes inuterine cervical lesions in Central Tunisia in order to predict the impact ofHPV vaccines and HPV-based screening tests among Tunisian women. We performed a retrospective study of 146 fixed tissues including 30 benign lesions, 36 low-grade cervical intraepithelial neoplasias (CIN1), 45 high-grade cervical intraepithelial neoplasias (CIN2/3), 26 invasive squamous cell carcinomas (SCC) and 9 adenocarcinomas. HPV infection detection and typing were investigated by PCR technique using consensus GP5/GP6 primers and type specific primers for HPV6/11, 16, 18, 31 and 33. Among our patients, overall HPV prevalence was 73.6% (p = 0.0001). HPV infection was associated to 84% of precancerous lesions and 83.9% of cancers. High-risk HPV infection (HPV16 and 18) was detected in 17.4% of CIN1, 74.3% of CIN2/3 (p = 0.002) and 73.1% of cancers (p = 0.001). HPV16 was the most common type among CIN2/3 (51.2%, p < 0.001), invasive SCC (47.6%, p = 0.001) and adenocarcinomas (80%, p < 0.001). This study supports previous population-based studies in which similar HPV detection rates were found among random samples of women. HPV-based screening tests and HPV vaccination would be efficient in uterine cervix cancer prevention among women in the Central Tunisia.