gms | German Medical Science

Objective:Infection with an oncogenic HPV types is essential for the development of cervical cancer. An infection normally occurs years before the disease become invasive and antibodies to the surface proteins of the virus as a defense mechanism are generated in this non-invasive phase. Antibodies to HPV-16 L1 capsid proteins are detectable in about 50% of cervical cancer patients. We investigated the prognostic significance of antibodies to HPV-16 L1 VLP´s for the course of patiens with invasive cervical cancer and correlated the HPV-16 L1 serum status with known prognostic parameters.

Material: Serum samples from150 patients with cervical cancer and40 healthy, HPV negativefemale control subjects were analyzed by a commercially avaiable enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay for HPV- 16-specific VLP immunoglobulin G (IgG) antibodies.

Results: HPV-16 L1 IgG antibodies were detectable in12 of40 (30%) of the control subjects and in65 of 150 (43.3%) of the patients with cervical cancer (P = .23). L1 seropositivity was in univariate and in addition to International Federation of Gynecology and Obstetrics stage and age , the only independent positive prognostic factor for overall survival (P = .043 , Figure1 [Fig. 1]) as well as for disease free survival. In the early FIGO stages I and II, 7 of 46 patients in the seropositive group (13.2%) but 18 of 48 patients in the seronegative group (27.3%) died of the disease (p= 0.048).

Conclusion: Antibodies to HPV-16 L1 were found to be an independent prognostic factor for overall survival and disease free survival in patients with cervical cancer.The serum status for HPV-16 L1 VLP´s might differentiate a subgroup of patients with an impaired immunresponse to HPV and aworse prognosis.