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Background: Human papillomaviruses (HPV) types 16 and 18 are clearly involved in the etiology of cervical cancer, but the evidence for the carcinogenicity of other HPV types is limited. Cofactors involved in the progression from infection with HPV to high-grade precursors and cancer have not been clearly defined by the results of previous studies.Methods: We conducted a hospital-based, case-control study of invasive cervical cancer to investigate risk in relation to HPV infection and its epidemiologic cofactors in Hat-Yai, Thailand. A total of 338 patients with squamous cell carcinoma, 39 patients with adenocarcinoma/adenosquamous carcinoma, and 261 control subjects were included in the study and were interviewed to obtain information with regard to cervical cancer risk factors. HPV DNA presence in cervical exfoliated cells or frozen biopsy specimens was determined by a polymerase chain reaction assay.Results: HPV DNA was detected in 95% of patients with squamous cell carcinoma, 90% of those with adenocarcinoma/adenosquamous carcinoma, and 16% of control subjects. For patients with squamous cell carcinoma, the most common types of HPV found were type 16 (60% of the positives), type 18 (18%), type 58 (3%), type 52 (3%), and type 31 (2%). For patients with adenocarcinoma/adenosquamous carcinoma, the most common HPV types found were type 18 (60% of the positives), type 16 (37%), and type 45 (3%). The risk factors that remained associated with risk of both histologic types after adjustment for HPV and their mutual confounding effects were limited education, increasing number of sexual partners, history of venereal diseases, and interval since last Pap smear (i.e., cytologic) test. Among patients with squamous cell carcinoma, some association with smoking was also observed.Conclusion: New preventive strategies for cervical cancer will require the consideration of multiple HPV types. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The aim of the present study was to estimate the prevalence of Kaposi sarcoma-associated herpesvirus (KSHV) in the female general population, to define geographic variation in and heterosexual transmission of the virus., Methods: The study included 10,963 women from 9 countries for whom information on sociodemographic characteristics and reproductive, sexual, and smoking behaviors were available. Antibodies against KSHV that encoded lytic antigen K8.1 and latent antigen ORF73 were determined., Results: The range of prevalence of KSHV (defined as detection of any antigen) was 3.81%-46.02%, with significant geographic variation noted. In Nigeria, the prevalence was 46.02%; in Colombia, 13.32%; in Costa Rica, 9.81%; in Argentina, 6.40%; in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, 15.50%; in Hanoi, Vietnam, 11.26%; in Songkla, Thailand, 10%; in Lampang, Thailand, 8.63%; in Korea, 4.93%; and in Spain, 3.65%. The prevalence of KSHV slightly increased with increasing age among subjects in geographic areas where the prevalence of KSHV was high, such as Nigeria and Colombia, and it significantly decreased with increases in the educational level attained by subjects in those areas. KSHV was not statistically associated with age at first sexual intercourse, number of sex partners, number of children, patterns of oral contraceptive use, presence of cervical human papillomavirus DNA, or smoking status., Conclusions: The study provides comparable estimates of KSHV prevalence in diverse cultural settings across 4 continents and provides evidence that sexual transmission of KSHV is not a major source of infection in the general population.

Goal: To determine type-specific seroprevalence of herpes simplex viruses (HSV-1 and HSV-2) and HSV-2 risk factors., Study Design: Six-hundred fifty eight middle-aged control women (hospital-based in 4 of 6 countries) from a multicenter cervical cancer case-control study participated from 1985 to 1997. Type-specific serum IgG antibodies against HSV-1 and HSV-2 were detected with Western Blot., Results: HSV-1 seroprevalence was 89% to 100% everywhere except Thailand (51%). HSV-2 seroprevalence ranged from 9% (Spain) to 57% (Colombia), and was independently associated with having >or=2 lifetime sexual partners overall [Odds ratio (OR), 2.1; 95% confidence interval (CI) 2.5-3.1], and in Morocco (OR, 2.7; 95% CI, 1.2-6.1) and Thailand (OR, 4.4; 95% CI, 1.3-15.4), and with being unmarried in Colombia, Peru, Spain, but not significantly in Mali. Women whose male partner's sexual debut was

Male circumcision has been shown to reduce the risk of acquiring and transmitting a number of venereal infections. However, little is known about the association between male circumcision and the risk of Chlamydia trachomatis infection in the female partner. The authors pooled data on 305 adult couples enrolled as controls in one of five case-control studies of invasive cervical cancer conducted in Thailand, the Philippines, Brazil, Colombia, and Spain between 1985 and 1997. Women provided blood samples for C. trachomatis and Chlamydia pneumoniae antibody detection; a type-specific microfluorescence assay was used. Multivariate odds ratios were computed for the association between male circumcision status and chlamydial seropositivity in women. Compared with women with uncircumcised partners, those with circumcised partners had a 5.6-fold reduced risk of testing seropositive for C. trachomatis (82% reduction; odds ratio = 0.18, 95% confidence interval: 0.05, 0.58). The inverse association was also observed after restricting the analysis to monogamous women and their only male partners (odds ratio = 0.21, 95% confidence interval: 0.06, 0.72). In contrast, seropositivity to C. pneumoniae, a non-sexually-transmitted infection, was not significantly related to circumcision status of the male partner. These findings suggest that male circumcision could reduce the risk of C. trachomatis infection in female sexual partners.

To investigate the prevalence and determinants of human papillomavirus (HPV) infection, the primary cause of cervical cancer, we studied 1741 women >/=15 years of age from Lampang and Songkla, Thailand. Exfoliated cervical cells were collected for Papanicolaou smear screening and DNA detection of 36 different HPV types. Serum immunoglobulin G antibodies against L1 virus-like particles (anti-VLPs) of HPV-16, -18, -31, -33, and -58 were evaluated using enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. Overall, 110 women (6.3%) were HPV DNA positive; the most common types were HPV-16, -52, and -72. The age-standardized prevalence of HPV DNA was higher among the 1035 women from Lampang (9.1%; 95% confidence interval [CI], 7.1-11.1) than among the 706 women from Songkla (3.9%; 95% CI, 2.3%-5.6%). Anti-VLPs were found in 21.8% of all women and were more frequent among women from Lampang (29.2%) than among women from Songkla (10.9%). Major risk factors for cervical HPV DNA were age <35 years, HSV-2 seropositivity, and having a husband with extramarital sexual partners.

Background: Human papillomaviruses (HPV) types 16 and 18 are clearly involved in the etiology of cervical cancer, but the evidence for the carcinogenicity of other HPV types is limited. Cofactors involved in the progression from infection with HPV to high-grade precursors and cancer have not been clearly defined by the results of previous studies., Methods: We conducted a hospital-based, case-control study of invasive cervical cancer to investigate risk in relation to HPV infection and its epidemiologic cofactors in Hat-Yai, Thailand. A total of 338 patients with squamous cell carcinoma, 39 patients with adenocarcinoma/adenosquamous carcinoma, and 261 control subjects were included in the study and were interviewed to obtain information with regard to cervical cancer risk factors. HPV DNA presence in cervical exfoliated cells or frozen biopsy specimens was determined by a polymerase chain reaction assay., Results: HPV DNA was detected in 95% of patients with squamous cell carcinoma, 90% of those with adenocarcinoma/adenosquamous carcinoma, and 16% of control subjects. For patients with squamous cell carcinoma, the most common types of HPV found were type 16 (60% of the positives), type 18 (18%), type 58 (3%), type 52 (3%), and type 31 (2%). For patients with adenocarcinoma/adenosquamous carcinoma, the most common HPV types found were type 18 (60% of the positives), type 16 (37%), and type 45 (3%). The risk factors that remained associated with risk of both histologic types after adjustment for HPV and their mutual confounding effects were limited education, increasing number of sexual partners, history of venereal diseases, and interval since last Pap smear (i.e., cytologic) test. Among patients with squamous cell carcinoma, some association with smoking was also observed., Conclusion: New preventive strategies for cervical cancer will require the consideration of multiple HPV types.