Interaction of High- and Low-Risk human papillomavirus genotypes is associated with a reduced risk of developing cervical cancer (Preprint)
BACKGROUND Cervical cancer is among the most common type of cancers in women and is associated with human papillomavirus (HPV) infection. OBJECTIVE The link between cervical cancer and high-risk HPV infection has been well documented, although the effect of simultaneous infection with high- and low-risk HPV or low-risk HPV alone on the risk of developing cervical malignancy is remained to be unanswered in guideline METHODS We have investigated the association of high and low-risk HPVs (HR or LR) genotype with cervical carcinoma risk, as well as pathological and cytological information in cases recruited from a population-based cohort study of 790 patients. RESULTS The percentage of HR+LR and HR-HPV16/18 were 9.30% and 11.20% in class II, 7.15% and 7.10% in class IV and 7.15% and 5.80% in As-CUS smears. Interestingly concurrent infection with HR-HPV and LR-HPV types led to a notable decline in the risk of developing malignancy in comparison with the high-risk group (OR=0.3 (0.098-0.925), p-value=0.04). The percentage of individuals with cervical malignancy was 10.2% and 28.2% within the co-infected and the HR-HPV participants. CONCLUSIONS Our finding demonstrated that simultaneous infection with high- and low-risk HPV reduces the risk of cervical malignancy.