No causal association identified for human papillomavirus infections in lung cancer
A partir de données de deux études rétrospectives et d'une étude prospective portant sur 3 083 cas et 4 328 témoins, cette étude met en évidence une absence d'association entre une infection par le papillomavirus humain et le risque de cancer du poumon
Human papillomavirus (HPV) infections have been implicated in lung carcinogenesis, but causal associations remain uncertain. We evaluated a potential causal role for HPV infections in lung cancer through an analysis involving serology, tumor DNA, RNA and p16 protein expression. Association between type-specific HPV antibodies and risk of lung cancer was examined among 3083 cases and 4328 controls in two case-control studies (retrospective) and one nested case-control study (prospective design). Three hundred and thirty four available tumors were subjected to pathological evaluation and subsequent HPV genotyping following stringent conditions to detect all high risk and two low risk HPV types. All HPV DNA positive tumors were further tested for the expression of p16 protein and type-specific HPV mRNA. Based on the consistency of the results, although HPV11 and HPV31 E6 antibodies were associated with lung cancer risk in the retrospective study, no association was observed in the prospective design. Presence of type-specific antibodies correlated poorly with the presence of the corresponding HPV DNA in the tumor. Although nearly 10% of the lung tumors were positive for any HPV DNA (7% for HPV16 DNA), none expressed the viral oncogenes. No association was observed between HPV antibodies or DNA and lung cancer survival. In conclusion, we found no supportive evidence for the hypothesized causal association between HPV infections and lung cancer.
Cancer Research 2014