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Background. Women diagnosed with cervical cancer report longer duration and more recent use of combined oral contraceptives (COCs). It is unclear how COC use impacts risk of cervical carcinogenesis. Methods. We estimated the risk of new human papillomavirus (HPV) DNA detection and persistence among 1135 human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)-negative women aged 20-37 years from Thailand who were followed for 18 months at 6-month intervals. Type-specific HPV DNA, demographic information, hormonal contraceptive use, sexual behavior, genital tract coinfection, and Papanicolaou test results were assessed at baseline and each follow-up. Results. Women who reported current COC use during follow-up were less likely to clear HPV infection compared with nonusers, independent of sexual behavior, and Papanicolaou test diagnosis (AHR: 0.67 [95% CI: .49-.93]). Similar associations were not observed among women reporting current use of depomedroxyprogesterone acetate (DMPA). Neither COC nor DMPA use was significantly associated with new HPV DNA detection. Conclusions. These data do not support the hypothesis that contraceptive use is associated with cervical cancer risk via increased risk of HPV acquisition. The increased risk of HPV persistence observed among current COC users suggests a possible influence of female sex hormones on host response to HPV infection. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses a study on the association between the use of hormonal contraceptives (HC) and the prevalence of human papillomavirus (HPV) infection. The study involved a cohort of women aged 20 to 37 in Thailand. Baseline HPV genotype information, sexual behavior and cervical cytology were some of the factors evaluated. A high risk of HPV infection was found associated with recent and long-term use of combined oral contraceptives (COCs) but not in progestin-only contraceptives.

The article examines the human papillomavirus (HPV) infection among women from communities in Chiang Mai, Thailand, using self-collected vaginal samples. Results show that self-collection of vaginal samples is highly accepted by the women in the communities, with 100% of eligible women willing to participate in the study. In addition, the self-collected sampling combined with polymerase chain reaction testing seems to be a rapid and simple method for HPV detection in the community-based epidemiologic studies. Other significant results of the study are discussed.

Human papillomavirus type 52 is highly prevalent in Asia and Africa and accounts for 2-3% of total cervical cancer burden worldwide. The Roche Molecular Systems HPV Linear Array (RMS-LA uses multiple type (i.e. mixed) probes to detect DNA from HPV 52 infection which limits the assay's ability to determine HPV 52 status in the presence of HPV 33, 35, or 58 infection. This report presents a simple to use and highly reproducible HPV 52 type-specific quantitative real-time PCR (RT-PCR) assay based on Taqman chemistry for detection and quantification of HPV 52 DNA from cervical swab specimens. Mixed probe positive cervical swab specimens collected from rural and urban women in Thailand (n=68) were used to determine assay agreement and differences in HPV 52 DNA viral load across cytological diagnosis. Forty-eight specimens were determined to be HPV 52 positive by RMS-LA with 94% (n=45) confirmed positive by Taqman assay (kappa: 0.86, 95% CI: 0.74, 0.99). Higher median viral load was observed among women with a Pap diagnosis of >=ASCUS vs. normal/inflammation (8510 copies/1000 cell equivalents vs. 279 copies/1000 cell equivalents, p<0.05). Accurate ascertainment of infection status is important in understanding HPV 52's role in the etiology of cervical cancer as well as for the development of type-specific vaccines.