Human papillomavirus E6 and E7 oncoproteins alter cell cycle progression but not radiosensitivity of carcinoma cells treated with low-dose-rate radiation.

Purpose: Low-dose-rate radiation therapy has been widely used in the treatment of urogenital malignancies. When continuously exposed to low-dose-rate ionizing radiation, target cancer cells typically exhibit abnormalities in replicative cell-cycle progression. Cancer cells that arrest in the G2 phase of the cell cycle when irradiated may become exquisitely sensitive to killing by further low-dose-rate radiation treatment.

Expression of HPV16 E6 or E7 increases integration of foreign DNA.

In most invasive cervical carcinomas, high-risk human papillomavirus (HPV) DNA is integrated into the host genome, while in pre-invasive cervical lesions the viral genome is typically maintained exclusively as an episome. In contrast, integration of low-risk HPV DNA is rare, as is the association of low-risk HPVs with carcinomas. High-risk HPV integration is associated with a selective growth advantage of affected cells, and hence, integration is likely to be an important genetic alteration contributing to cervical tumor progression.

Human papillomavirus investigation of patients with cervical intraepithelial neoplasia 3, some of whom progressed to invasive cancer.

The major objective of the study was to determine if the contrasting frequencies (1.5% vs. 22%) of progression of cervical intraepithelial neoplasia (CIN) 3 lesions to invasive cervical carcinoma in two groups of patients in a previously published study from New Zealand had a virologic basis.

p53 mutations and clonality in vulvar carcinomas and squamous hyperplasias: evidence suggesting that squamous hyperplasias do not serve as direct precursors of human papillomavirus-negative vulvar carcinomas.

Previous studies of vulvar carcinomas have shown two distinct subsets with respect to several clinicopathologic features. In younger women, the tumors are frequently human papillomavirus (HPV) positive, are usually of basaloid or warty histology, and are associated with vulvar intraepithelial neoplasia. In older women, the tumors are usually HPV negative, are typical keratinizing squamous carcinomas, and are associated with squamous hyperplasia--a lesion that has been purported to serve as a precursor to HPV-negative invasive carcinoma.

Rapid identification of patient specimens with microsatellite DNA markers.

Despite the use of standardized clerical and processing procedures in surgical pathology, questions might arise regarding the proper identification of specimens with respect to patient source. Genotypic analysis of microsatellite DNA polymorphisms was used to identify the patient source of two surgical pathology specimens showing carcinoma. Four highly polymorphic microsatellite loci were evaluated in DNA extracted from various formalin-fixed, paraffin-embedded tissues.