Coexistence of anal and genital human papilloma virus infection in patients with anal canal carcinoma

The aim of the study was to identify the coexistence of human papilloma virus (HPV) infection in anal carcinoma and in the cervix and glans penis in a population at low risk of sexually transmitted diseases. DNA samples from 14 biopsies of anal carcinoma were analysed by polymerase chain reaction for HPV 6–11, 16, 18, 31–33. The same was done for cervical or glans penis scrapings of the same patients. Among the 9 HPV positive anal squamous carcinomas (64.3%) 6 were HPV 16 positive (42.9%) and 3 were HPV 31–33 positive (21.4%). All the HPV 31–33 positive anal squamous carcinomas were also HPV 31–33 positive in the cytological samples obtained by cervical or glans penis scrapings. In 2 cases (14.3%) HPV 16 was observed both in the anal canal and in the cervix. These data suggest the usefulness of contemporaneous anal and genital evaluation by means of anoscopy and colposcopy with biopsies or scraping as a screening method to identify the presence of HPV without restricting it exclusively to those patients affected by dysplastic lesions of the genital apparatus, sexually transmitted diseases, or to homosexual patients. Received: 20 January 1997 / Accepted in revised form: 3 January 1999