A new study suggests that cervical cancer tumours correlate to HPV types.
According to an analysis of Ugandan women with cervical cancers, there are significant genomic differences between tumours that are caused by HPV, indicating HPV could impact the characteristics and prognosis of cervical cancer.
The leading cause of cervical cancer is HPV.
The study published in Nature Genetics by a team of scientists from the University of British Columbia and Canada's Michael Smith Genome Sciences Centre at BC Cancer takes a look at different cervical cancer samples which are infected by different HPV types. These HPV types are also known as clades.
The most common causes of cervical cancer can be linked to HPV-16 and HPV-18 which belong to clades A9 and A7, which have been detected in approximately 70 per cent of cases.
HPV-18 is associated with more aggressive types of cancer.
“We are very grateful to have had the opportunity to engage in a wonderful collaboration, involving teams of researchers from different countries and continents, to use genome science to analyze these very precious samples from Ugandan patients,” says Dr. Marco Marra, director of the GSC and head of UBC’s department of medical genetics in the faculty of medicine.
“This opportunity speaks to the foresight of those who collaborated with the Uganda Cancer Institute in Kampala to perform sample collection, and the study funders that made it possible. We are especially grateful to the support of the patients, without whom this work could not have happened.”
With HPV vaccinations and regular screenings, cervical cancer is decreasing in B.C., but it is the fourth most common worldwide cancer and is the most common form of cancer-related deaths in sub-Saharan African females. By 2040, researches predict a 50 per cent increase in cervical cancer related mortalities.
In B.C. alone this year, approximately 200 people are diagnosed with cervical cancer and 50 will die.
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