Investigation of human papillomavirus in bladder cancer in a series of Tunisian patients

Background: Association between human papillomavirus (HPV) infection and the development
of bladder cancer is variable. Furthermore, the prevalence of HPV DNA in bladder carcinoma
subtypes varies from study to study. To clarify the impact of HPV infection on the development
of bladder carcinoma, we performed a retrospective study on Tunisian patients for the status of
HPV infection in urothelial carcinoma, squamous cell carcinoma and adenocarcinoma.
Methods: A total of 125 formalin-fixed, paraffin-embedded archival tissue of bladder carcinoma
were reviewed and classified according to the World Health Organization (WHO) classification
of tumors (119 urothelial carcinomas, five squamous carcinomas and one adenocarcinoma).
Anogenital HPV DNA detection was performed with three different polymerase chain reaction
(PCR) techniques. The first one, using primers pU-2R/pU-1M specific to high-risk oncogenic
HPV. The second one, using primers PU-2R/PU-31B specific to low-risk oncogenic HPV and the
third one, employing consensus primers (E1-547R/E1-350L).
Results: No evidence of HPV infection was detected by morphological examination and PCR in
any case of bladder carcinoma.
Conclusion: Our study shows that anogenital HPV investigated are not associated with the
pathogenesis of bladder cancer in Tunisia, however, the possibility that other subtypes of HPV
contribute to bladder carcinogenesis remains to be clarified.