Prevalence of genotype‐specific human papillomavirus infection and cervical neoplasia in Taiwan: A community‐based survey of 10,602 women

Human papillomavirus (HPV) causes cervical neoplasia; but limited data are available from Asia. We conducted a large‐scale community‐based cohort study in Taiwan to estimate prevalence of genotype‐specific HPV infection and cervical neoplasia. Following written informed consent, cervical cells for cytology and HPV testing were collected from 11,923 participants (aged 30–65 years old, mean 46.3) in 1991–1992. Genotyping was performed using MY11/GP6+ PCR‐based HPV Blot (EasyChip) for 39 HPV types. The overall HPV prevalence was 16.2% for 10,602 eligible participants, and 13.8% for 10,190 cytologically normal participants. The most common carcinogenic types were HPV52 (2.5%), HPV16 (2.0%), HPV56 (1.8%), HPV18 (1.6%), HPV33 (1.2%), HPV58 (1.3%) and HPV39 (1.0%). Among the 56 prevalent invasive and in situ cases, HPV16 (48.2%) was most common, followed by HPV58 (25.0%), HPV52 (19.6%), HPV31 (8.9%), HPV33 (8.9%) and HPV18 (3.6%). HPV16 and HPV58 caused cytological HSIL+ at younger ages than HPV52. Approximately half of the cervical cancer cases and high‐grade precursors in Taiwan could be prevented by prophylactic vaccines against HPV16 and HPV18 infection. Up to 40% more could be prevented by targeting HPV58, HPV52, HPV33 and HPV31, arguing for the introduction of vaccines including more types.