Exploratory study of histopathological characteristics of cervical cancer in an African (Tanzania) population.

e16530 Background: In Tanzania, cervical cancer is the leading cause of death after breast cancer, with the majority of tumors diagnosed at a very advanced stage. Little information is available on the characteristics of cervical cancer in Sub-Saharan African women. We aimed to evaluate histopathological features of cervical cancers and relative margins in a group of African women and to characterize HPV infection. Methods: Tissue samples from32 Tanzanian women with invasive cervical cancer were evaluated in the Biosciences Laboratory of our Institute (IRCCS IRST, Meldola, Italy) as part of a global cancer control project currently ongoing in close cooperation with the Bugando Medical Center of Mwanza, Tanzania. Results: 24/32 (75%) women had squamous carcinoma and 4/32 (12.5%) had adenocarcinoma of the cervix. The HPV test was performed in the entire series but DNA amplification by pyrosequencing was only possible in 27/32 (84.4%). The presence of HPV infection was confirmed in 26/27 (96.3%) cases in both tumor and relative margins. Typization of the virus revealed that a high percentage of the women had HPV 16 virus of whom 12 (46.2 %) had African type 1 and 4 (15.4%) African type 2. Conclusions: A major problem in the cancer tissue samples from the Tanzanian patients was the poor evaluability of DNA amplification due to suboptimal fixation which compromised tissue morphology. Our preliminary study shows that cervical cancer in Tanzanian women is characterized by a very high frequency of HPV-positive tumors, with a high prevalence of HPV 16 African type 1 and 2 infections. The substantial number of HPV infections could explain the high rate of cervical cancer and subsequent mortality in this African population. [Table: see text]