The importance of mixed viral infections in HPV-related non-melanoma skin cancers

Project manager: Jolanta Kopeć, M.A
Implementation period: 2019 - 2020

 

Epidemiological studies indicate that approximately 15% of human cancers may be related to viral infection. The best known oncoviruses are papillomaviruses (HPV). Their role in the development of squamous cell carcinoma and adenocarcinoma of the anogenital region has already been confirmed. A risk factor for cancer development is persistent HPV infection with high expression of E6/E7 genes, leading to the accumulation of mutations in epithelial cells.

However, it is known that only about 1% of women infected with highly oncogenic HPV types develop cancer, therefore this process must also depend on other factors, including: environmental and biological. Among them, additional infections may play an important role, especially those affecting epithelial cells and may directly or indirectly affect the course and efficiency of HPV replication. The etiopathogenesis of skin cancer associated with HPV infection has not yet been well understood. A specific correlation between HPV types and an increased incidence of cancer could not be confirmed. There are suggestions that HPV is only a cofactor of this process initiated by UV radiation. Research is being conducted on the involvement of papillomaviruses in non-melanoma skin cancers (NMSC) in immunocompetent and immunosuppressed patients. The results of these studies are not clear, including: due to the frequent presence of HPV in healthy skin cells.

However, in the population of transplant patients, in whom cancer is the second most common cause of death, skin cancer is the most common. Viruses that promote malignant transformation in immunocompromised states include viruses capable of reactivation from a latent state, such as herpes and polyoma viruses. The aim of the study will be to assess the frequency of their occurrence in biopsy materials taken from patients with NMSC and already tested for Betapapilloma virus infections.