Detection of human papillomavirus in urine and cervical swabs from patients with invasive cervical cancer.

Despite the high prevalence of both human papillomavirus (HPV) infections and cervical cancer among Zimbabwean women, the ability to test for HPV infection of the uterine cervix is limited by a lack of an easy sample collection method that does not require gynecological examination. The presence of HPVs in urine and cervical swab samples collected from 43 women who presented with invasive cervical cancer was investigated. HPV detection was done by means of degenerate primers in a nested polymerase chain reaction (PCR).

Typing of human papillomavirus in Zimbabwean patients with invasive cancer of the uterine cervix.

Background: Cervical cancer affects 1 in 2000 Zimbabwean women. We investigated the type-specific distribution of human papillomavirus (HPV) infection in Zimbabwean women with invasive cervical cancer.

Methods: We conducted a descriptive study on 98 women with invasive cervical cancer.