Abstract
Objectives
To investigate the role of Human Papillomavirus (HPV) and Adenovirus (AdV) infections in the oncogenesis of squamous cell carcinomas of the larynx and of laryngeal dysplasia.
Methods
Between April 2002 and November 2003, biopsy samples were taken from 40 patients with squamous cell carcinomas of the larynx, 1 with verrucous carcinoma, 5 with laryngeal papillomas, 4 with dysplastic lesions, and 18 control cases. The control biopsies were taken in microlaryngoscopy from patients with vocal disorders caused by nodules and polyps, or by inflammatory or traumatic conditions of the larynx. All the frozen tissue samples, which were previously taken from fresh tissue and then stored at −70°C, were analyzed using the Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) with 2 groups of primers for HPV and with a pair of primers for AdV. In the positive cases, the viral type was established by using the automated DNA sequence analysis.
Results
All the cases of squamous cell carcinomas, laryngeal verrucous carcinomas, dysplasia, and all the control cases were negative for both viruses. 4 of the 5 cases of laryngeal papillomas (80%) were only positive for HPV (2 HPV6 and 2 HPV11), confirming the role of these viral types in the origin of papillomas.
Conclusions
The absence of viral genomes in laryngeal carcinomas as in the other cases studied suggests the existence of other factors playing a more important role than viral infection in the carcinogenesis of these lesions.
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