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Association of human papillomavirus infections with cutaneous tumors in immunosuppressed patients

  • Original Article
  • Published:
Transplant International

Abstract

Besides immunosuppression and UV radiation, human papillomavirus (HPV) infection was also suggested to be involved in the development of non-melanoma skin cancer, the most common malignancy after transplantation. In this study we used a comprehensive PCR assay to analyze the prevalence of individual HPV types in different skin lesions from transplant and non-transplant patients. HPV DNA was detected more frequently in squamous cell carcinomas (SCCs) of transplant recipients (75%) than the same lesion was in non-immunosuppressed patients (47%). Similar HPV prevalences were found in cutaneous warts (91% vs 94%), pre-malignant skin tumors (38% vs 36%), and normal skin specimens (17% vs 16%) of both patient populations. Overall, more than 40 different HPV types were identified. HPV types 5 and 8 were found more frequently in SCCs (26%) than in pre-cancerous (5%) or benign lesions (1%). All HPV 5- and HPV 8-positive SCCs were from immunosuppressed patients, indicating that infection with HPV 5 and HPV 8 may present an increased risk of SCC development in these patients.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by a grant from the DKH, Germany (Grant No. 70–2588)

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Immunology, Clinical Pathology and Molecular Medicine, Lademannbogen 61, 22339, Hamburg, Germany

    Thomas Meyer & Rüdiger Arndt

  2. Department of Dermatology, University of Kiel, Kiel, Germany

    Ingo Nindl, Claas Ulrich, Enno Christophers & Eggert Stockfleth

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  1. Thomas Meyer
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  2. Rüdiger Arndt
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  3. Ingo Nindl
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  4. Claas Ulrich
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  5. Enno Christophers
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  6. Eggert Stockfleth
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Correspondence to Thomas Meyer.

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Meyer, T., Arndt, R., Nindl, I. et al. Association of human papillomavirus infections with cutaneous tumors in immunosuppressed patients. Transpl Int 16, 146–153 (2003). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00147-002-0525-7

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00147-002-0525-7

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