Carcinogenesis Advance Access originally published online on July 20, 2009
Carcinogenesis 2009 30(10):1722-1728; doi:10.1093/carcin/bgp177
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Human papillomavirus type 16 and 18 in primary lung cancers—a meta-analysis
1 Department of Epidemiology, Graduate School of Public Health
2 Division of Cancer Prevention and Population Science, University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute, Pittsburgh, PA 15232, USA
3 Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, State University of New York Downstate Medical Center, 450 Clarkson Avenue, Box 43, Brooklyn, NY 11203, USA
* To whom correspondence should be addressed. Tel: +1 718 221 5280; Fax: +1 718 270 2533; Email: camille.ragin{at}downstate.edu
Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer mortality worldwide. A possible carcinogenic role of human papillomavirus (HPV) has been investigated for >20 years and has major clinical and public health implications. We performed a meta-analysis to assess the prevalence of HPV16 and HPV18 in primary lung cancers (2435 subjects from 37 published studies). The overall HPV prevalence ranged from 0.0 to 78.3% with large heterogeneity across geographic regions and histological tissue types. A higher proportion, 50% (7/14), of the European studies reported low or no HPV prevalence (0–10%) compared with the Asian studies, 22% (4/18). When the analysis was limited to HPV16 and HPV18 prevalence, a higher prevalence in Asia (HPV16 = 11.6% and HPV18 = 8.8%) than in Europe (HPV16 = 3.5% and HPV18 = 3.6%) was observed. Studies using HPV-specific primers resulted in higher prevalence rates than consensus HPV primers (HPV16: Asia = 13% and Europe = 6%; HPV18: Asia = 13% and Europe = 5%). Further studies are needed to elucidate the role of HPV in lung carcinogenesis with careful thought given to study design and laboratory detection methods for a more accurate assessment of HPV status in lung tumors.
Abbreviations: BAC, bronchioloalveolar carcinoma; CI, confidence interval; HPV, human papillomavirus; PCR, polymerase chain reaction
Received May 22, 2009; revised July 11, 2009; accepted July 13, 2009.