Human Papillomavirus Genotype Distribution in a Hospital-based Single-Center Study

Abstract

Cervical cancer is reported as one of the most prevalent malignancies worldwide in women. There is a substantial connection between cervical diseases and infection with Human Papillomavirus (HPV), especially Types 16 and 18 of HPV. This study aimed to assess the HPV genotype distribution to determine its most common type at a referral hospital in Iran. This cross-sectional study was conducted on 400 women with positive HPV result tests who visited the gynecologic oncology clinic of Baqiyatallah Hospital from 2017-2021. The average age of subjects was 37.46±9.75 years (range=19-74). About 167 (41.8%) of the patients were between 25 to 35 years. The analysis showed that 137 (34.2%) patients had only low-risk (LR) typing, 129 (32.2%) patients had only high-risk (HR) typing, and 134 (33.5%) patients had both HR and LR typing. The most frequent LR HPV types were HPV 6 (18.5%) and 11 (17%), and the most frequent HR HPV types were HPV-16 (14.7%), 52 (8.2%), 18, and 31 (6.5%). This study showed that the most frequent age category in both low- and HR HPVpositive women is the age 25 to 35 years. The second most common HR-HPV subtypes included HPV-52, not HPV-18, which indicates variations in HR-HPV subtypes in different populations and races and warrants further research.