Occurrence of human papillomavirus DNA types 16 and 18 (HPV-16/18) in cervical smears as compared to cytological findings.

Cervical smears from 2336 women were examined for the presence of HPV-16/18 by dot-blot hybridization using 32P-labeled HPV-16/18 DNA under high stringency conditions. The hybridization data were compared with cytological findings classified according to Papanicolaou. The ages of the patients ranged from under 20 to over 70 years. Ninety-eight (4.4%) of the 2237 cytologically normal cervical samples (Pap I and II) were HPV-16/18 positive. Thirteen out of 32 (40.6%) samples showing signs of mild and moderate dysplasia (Pap IIID) were found to be HPV-16/18 positive. In 5 out of 7 (71.4%) samples from women with severe dysplasia or carcinoma in situ (Pap IV) and in 9 out of 25 (32.1%) samples from patients with invasive cervical carcinoma (Pap V) HPV-16/18 DNA was detected. Thirty-two smears were from women with severe unspecific cervical inflammation (Pap III). Two (6.2%) out of them were HPV-16/18 positive. Normal smears showed an apparent age-dependent pattern of HPV-16/18 positivity with a peak prevalence of 10.6% among women younger than 20 years old. The majority of premalignant lesions was detected among women younger than 40 years old; whereas all invasive lesions were from women older than 39 years. Compared to the HPV-16/18 prevalence rate in normal smears, abnormal smears harbored HPV-16/18 DNA approximately 9 times more frequently. This finding supports the hypothesis that HPV-16/18 may be involved in the development of cervical cancer.