ATLANTA — Herpes simplex virus-2 does not appear to be a cofactor of human papillomavirus in the development of cervical cancer, Dr. Manuela Zereu reported at the annual meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology.
Human papillomavirus (HPV) is well established as an infection that is central to the pathogenesis of invasive cervical cancer, but because many women with HPV do not develop this cancer, it is believed certain cofactors play a role in disease development.
Some studies have suggested HSV-2 is one such cofactor, and in vitro experiments have shown a synergistic interaction between HSV-2 and HPV, but the findings of the current study did not bear this out, Dr. Zereu of the Santa Casa Cancer Center in Porto Alegre, Brazil, said in a poster presentation.
For the study, paraffin-embedded tissue samples from 229 patients diagnosed with adenocarcinoma of the uterine cervix between 1995 and 2003 were tested. DNA extraction showed that HPV was present in 79% of specimens, including HPV-18 in 51% of cases and HPV-16 in 34% of cases. However, all samples were negative for HSV-2 DNA.