Female genital tract cancers: detection of HPV and p16ink4a

Cervical cancer is the third most common cancer in women in Tunisia. The role of human papillomavirus (HPV) in cervical cancer is well established. In this work, we analyzed the expression profile of p16INK4A as well as the status of HPV infection in cancers of the female genital tract in central Tunisia, including vulvar, vaginal, endometrial and ovarian cancers, and compared our results with those published for cervical cancer. We conducted a retrospective study of 39 cases. HPV infection was studied by in situ hybridisation and p16INK4A expression profile by immunohistochemistry. Overexpression of p16INK4A and HPV infection was significantly observed in carcinoma of the vagina and adenocarcinoma of the endometrium. An association between serous ovarian adenocarcinoma and p16INK4A expression and HPV infection was 66.6%. Our results are close to those reported in the literature, and the association with endometrial and vaginal carcinogenesis is comparable to that observed in the cervix.