Failure to Demonstrate the Role of High Risk Human Papilloma Virus in Epithelial Ovarian Cancer

Background and Aims: Ovarian cancer is one of most common causes of cancer related women’s mortalities. Human papilloma virus is a known factor concerning cervical cancer but its role in causing ovarian cancer is not yet verified. A few studies also identified HPV DNA in ovarian carcinoma tissues. However, some studies did not detect HPV DNA in ovarian carcinoma tissues. In this article, we investigated the potential role of high risk HPVs in the ovarian epithelial carcinoma. Methods: Fifty archived epithelial ovarian cancer paraffin blocks were collected. Then, 30 non-malignant ovarian blocks used as control. These samples were histopathologically were confirmed by a pathologist and the proper blocks for DNA extraction and PCR were sorted. PCR was conducted deploying highly specific primers for high-risk types of HPV (18 and 16) according to the instructions of manufacturer company. Results: High-risk oncogenic sequences were identified in 4 (5%) of the 80 studied samples. Of the 4 HPV positive cases, there was 1 case with normal tissue, 1 case of mucinous cyst adenocarcinoma, and 2 cases of serous cyst adenocarcinoma Conclusion: Surprisingly, our findings could not support any association between high-risk oncogenic human papilloma virus (18 and 16) and malignant ovarian epithelial cancer. Therefore, that HPV is highly unlikely to play any causal role in the pathogenesis of epithelial ovarian neoplasia.