Human papillomavirus genotype distribution and its correlation with intraepithelial neoplasia, vaccination, and ethnicity.

Introduction: Cervical cancer is primarily attributed to high-risk human papillomavirus (HPV), specifically genotypes 16 and 18. The introduction of HPV vaccines aimed to reduce the incidence of cervical cancer.

Materials and methods: This study reviewed cases of High-Grade Squamous Intraepithelial Lesion (HSIL) and Atypical Squamous Cells Cannot Exclude HSIL (ASC-H) with positive high-risk HPV and HPV genotyping data. The prevalence of HPV genotypes 16/18 and non-16/18 was compared in cases with high-grade intraepithelial neoplasia (IN2+), across different ethnicities and with HPV vaccination status.

Results: A total of 274 patients (94 HSIL and 180 ASC-H) were evaluated. HPV non-16/18 was significantly more prevalent in ASC-H (68%) than in HSIL patients (50%); (P = 0.003). HPV non-16/18 was more common in cases without -IN2+ (69%), but a significant proportion of IN2+ cases were also positive for non-16/18 HPV genotypes (56%); (P = 0.04). Overall, HPV non-16/18 was more prevalent in all ethnic groups. There was a trend to a higher prevalence in non-white and vaccinated compared with white and nonvaccinated women respectively, but the difference was not significant.

Conclusions: HPV non-16/18 genotypes are more prevalent than HPV 16/18, even in women with high-grade lesions with a greater shift towards non-16/18 genotypes in non-white and in vaccinated women. The study suggests the need for extended HPV genotyping and vaccines targeting a broader range of HPV types to include HPV non-16/18 to improve prevention, particularly in certain ethnic groups.