Italian observational study on HPV infection, E6, and p16 expression in men with penile cancer (original) (raw)

Background Human Papillomavirus (HPV) infection is one of the most important causes of cancer. It can play a role in cervical and extra-cervical cancers. Penile cancer is rare, even if an increasing trend was recently reported. Aim of the present study was to assess the prevalence and distribution of HPV genotypes in cases of penile cancer diagnosed in Sardinia, Italy. Surrogate markers of HPV infection (i.e., E6 and p16 genes) were also evaluated in all cases. Methods An observational, retrospective study which recruited all cases of penile cancer diagnosed between 2002 and 2019 at a tertiary care hospital in Sardinia, Italy, was carried out. HPV-DNA detection and genotyping were performed by Real-time PCR. Specimens were tested for oncogene E6 mRNA and for p16(INK4a) expression. Results HPV prevalence was 28.1% (9/32); HPV-16 was the most prevalent genotype (7/9, 77.8%). p16INK4a positivity was found in 66.7% of the samples with a statistically significant difference between HPV-p...