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Address correspondence to Edward John Mayeaux, Jr, MD, Department of Family Medicine, Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center, 1501 Kings Highway, Shreveport, LA 71103-4228. E-mail: EMayea{at}lsuhsc.edu.
Human papillomavirus (HPV) infection is a common sexually transmitted infection that is often acquired at the onset of sexual activity. Risk factors include younger age at time of sexual debut, sexual behavior, intact foreskin, and immunologic status. Persistent infection with high-risk oncogenic HPV types (especially 16 and 18) is associated with cervical cancer, other anogenital diseases, as well as some head and neck cancers. Infection with low-risk HPV types is associated with genital warts, low-grade dysplasias, and recurrent respiratory papillomatosis. Screening and management of HPV-related diseases incur high healthcare costs. Whereas routine screening of female patients with Papanicolaou tests helps prevent advanced stages of cancer through early detection and treatment, the recently developed HPV L1 capsid protein virus-like particle vaccines offer an option for prevention of HPV-related diseases, including cervical cancer.
This review provides the latest thinking and data related to HPV. Many presentations at symposia may discuss conditions or diseases that physicians do not often see, especially in primary care–type practices. However, HPV is not one of those entities. Current estimates show that approximately 20 million people are infected with HPV in the United States.1 The annual incidence of sexually transmitted HPV infection is 6.2 million.2 In 2005, an estimated 10,370 new infections and 3710 deaths occurred.3 Worldwide HPV infection is a major issue as well.
The cost for treating persons with HPV infection, preventing HPV infection, and preventing the sequelae of HPV-related diseases is greater than the combined cost for the prevention and treatment of the next three most prevalent sexually transmitted diseases (STDs). In the United States, the total direct medical expenditures for HPV, at $1.6 million annually,4 are the highest of all other STDs except the human immunodeficiency virus infection.
During their lifetime, about 75% of sexually active individuals will be exposed to HPV.4 One of the most common STDs is genital warts, with 1.4 million individuals (1%) currently affected, and the incidence is increasing.5
| Genital Warts |
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Most HPV is spread by sexual contact. Therefore, proscribing sexual contact obviously would prevent HPV transmission. Compliance with abstinence, however, would be difficult to achieve, especially among teenagers. It is also known that even with abstinence, some documented cases of fomite transmission have occurred, as infection with HPV can be spread by other means (ie, fingers, tampons, swabs, biopsy forceps, and other devices).9 Also, documented cases of nonpenetrative sexual activity have been implicated as a cause of genital warts.10
Unfortunately, many teenagers may be confused about what constitutes "having sexual relations" and "not having sexual relations." Cancer can occur in the throat; so clearly, oral sex also is a means of HPV transmission. It is therefore essential to use clear definitions when determining which individuals or populations are at risk for HPV-associated diseases. Although nonsexual routes of HPV transmission exist, the sexual route is by far the most common. Transmission of HPV infection does not require penetrative intercourse.10,11
| Diagnosis of Genital Warts |
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| Treatment Options for Genital Warts |
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All these modalities have 60% to 80% short-term efficacy and high rates of recurrence. Their effect on transmission is unknown.12
| Diagnosis of Cervical Abnormalities |
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Currently in the United States, testing for high-risk HPV is done in two major settings. One is a reflex test used when a Pap test shows ASCUS. Newly recommended is high-risk testing. Women who have both tests showing no abnormality can be reliably screened at 3-year intervals because of the high negative predictive value of negative HPV tests combined with cytology.
About 25% of the HPV-infected population has no evidence of infection, whereas the largest proportion of the 75% of sexually active individuals with HPV infection comprise those who have serologic evidence (ie, antibodies to HPV) of having been infected sometime in the past but who do not currently have active infection.
Many women have HPV infection detected by colposcopy, the use of which is determined by the findings of the physical examination and Pap test (exclusive of HPV test findings).14 When a woman has a Pap test showing abnormal cells, follow-up biopsy is used to histologically establish the level of disease.
Indications for cervical biopsy include visible exophytic lesions on the cervix, an HSIL Pap test result, a Pap test showing atypical squamous cells that cannot exclude HSIL, or LSIL with abnormal colposcopic findings.12,13
| Treatment Options for Cervical Abnormalities |
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| Transmission of Human Papillomavirus |
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Once individuals become sexually active, the incidence of HPV infection increases. In a study looking at a collegeaged population, it was found that once sexual activity was initiated—even without intromissive intercourse—the incidence of infection increased over time.11
| Human Papillomavirus Types |
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With wild-type HPV infection, an individual who is exposed to a certain type (eg, HPV 16) will become immune to that type, without having immunity to other HPV types. Thus, each HPV-type infection is almost a different disease as far as its effect on the body.
Some types of HPV have a greater association with cancer than others, whereas some HPV types, mainly types 6 and 11, generally do not cause cancer. However, they can still cause disease. These HPV types are only slightly associated with cancer, mainly vulvar cancer.
Type 6 and type 11 HPV cause an extremely rare, but serious, syndrome termed recurrent respiratory papillomatosis (RRP). Although only about 3000 cases occur per year in the United States, RRP is a devastating disease. Treatment of children with RRP requires multiple ablations and noxious chemicals placed in the airway to control the disease until such time as these children can outgrow the disease.
Juvenile onset of RRP is thought to be the result of vertical transmission from HPV-infected mothers to infants during delivery.17 Adult onset occurs less frequently and is the result of transmission through sexual contact.18
Condoms may not be universally effective in preventing HPV-associated cervical dysplasia but may prevent genital warts.19
| HPV-Related Cancers |
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Vaginal and vulvar cancers are also associated with HPV infections, and other sites of malignant involvement also have been identified. An extremely rare cancer of the nail fold and some oropharyngeal cancers are related to HPV 16. New data have shown HPV 16 is associated with up to 70% of lower tongue and pharyngeal cancers.20 Clearly, the HPV in general is involved in malignant disease in multiple regions. Data, however, are still insufficient to determine exactly how effective any particular preventive methods or treatment modalities will be for these cancers. More interesting information and advances are likely to be forthcoming.
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For the past 20 years, attempts to reduce morbidity and mortality have been unsuccessful. Healthcare providers have reached the limits of the tests and of patients' willingness to undergo the tests. The numbers are remaining constant despite the introduction of new approaches, automated Pap test readers, and new Pap test techniques. Inventing or developing a slightly better version of techniques that physicians are already using will not be sufficient to accomplish increased longevity and life expectancy and better disease outcomes. To effect such changes requires shifting the paradigm and adopting a totally new approach.
Cervical cancer is directly related to HPV infection, but it is not necessarily sufficient by itself to cause all cervical cancers; 99.7% can be proved related to HPV, the other 0.3%11 is suspected but cannot be proved to be related to HPV. Potential cofactors exist in cervical carcinogenesis (Figure 2).16,23,24 If cervical cancer is an infectious disease, a new paradigm is warranted, one that parallels the current one for preventing hepatitis B, poliomyelitis, rubella, and other diseases that are becoming less common and having reduced morbidity and mortality in the United States.
Several malignancies are attributable to HPV infection (Figure 3).25,26 Each year, 6% of 9 million new cases of all cancers worldwide, excluding nonmelanoma skin cancers, and 20% to 24% of all cancers in women in Latin American, South-west Asia, and sub-Saharan Africa are attributable to HPV infection.26
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| Risk Factors for HPV Transmission |
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The significance of this pyramid is important when considering risk of HPV transmission because, as the study by Castellsagué et al32 shows, when one partner is monogamous, risk is directly related to previous exposure, but when the partner is not monogamous, risk is multiplied. Figure 4 outlines factors associated with higher risk of HPV transmission.
| Screening and Prevention |
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In a study by Alam and Stiller,34 the total direct costs (including costs of initial and subsequent physician visits) per complete clearance of simple and extensive condylomata acuminata via medical modalities ranged from $424 for podofilox to $6665 for interferon-alfa 2b. The direct costs for surgical modalities ranged from $285 to $951.34 Thus, effective prevention of HPV-related disease—even by reducing the number of abnormalities detected on Pap tests by 10% to 30%—could lead to substantial healthcare cost savings.
Generally, antibodies develop in individuals who are infected with the low-risk types of HPV—types 6 and 11—just as they do in those persons infected with HPV type 1, which causes the common warts of the finger. The same thing commonly occurs in individuals with the high-risk types of HPV, but not always.
The good news is that in most women who become infected with the worst HPV types, the infection clears by itself. The bad news is that no one can predict in which women the infection will clear. Thus, HPV of the high-risk types may persist, and as the infection persists, the virus forms proteins that interfere with DNA transcription, pre-programmed cell death (or apoptosis), and the cell's ability to enter the resting cell phase.
Uncontrolled cell growth, DNA errors, and persistent HPV infection lead to cancer. High-risk types of HPV are known to be associated with cancer. Ability to predict in whom this threat exists would allow directly targeting prevention for those women at highest risk of cancer. However, despite the best diagnostic tests available, research findings, and recognition of immunomodular effects of cofactors (eg, smoking, nutrition, oral contraceptives), physicians still lack such predictive ability.
It was once thought that HPV infections progressed in an orderly fashion to cervical intraepithelial neoplasia grade 1 (CIN-1), next to grade 2 (CIN-2), and then to grade 3 (CIN-3). It is now recognized, however, that CIN-1 and HPV infection are much the same and not where the real risk for cancer lies. Somewhere in CIN-1 HPV infection, one cell becomes abnormal and clones itself and becomes the CIN grades 2 and 3, which ultimately lead to cancer.
New evidence-based algorithms for management of abnormalities detected on Pap tests are now available at http://www.asccp.org.
Genital warts are easier to identify, but if they do not respond to treatment as expected, a tissue biopsy is warranted. If the patient has already been treated for genital warts, it is essential to alert the pathologist to avoid using chemicals that are noxious and alter the appearance of the cell sample.
| Comment |
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The question has always been, How can we treat patients with HPV-related diseases more effectively? But now, the question has become, How can we prevent these diseases more effectively? The answer may be the HPV L1 capsid protein virus-like particle vaccines. These vaccines are designed to prevent genital infections, genital warts, and anogenital neoplasia. The bivalent and quadrivalent HPV vaccines are not live; they contain no viral DNA, so they are neither infectious nor oncogenic.
| Footnotes |
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Dr Mayeaux discloses that he is a consultant (advisory board) for GlaxoSmithKline and Merck & Co, Inc.
| References |
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