The association between cervical cancers and human papillomavirus (HPV) is now well established. To estimate
the extent of infection with common HPVs among Korean women, we have examined 224 cervical scrapes of various
cervical lesions. Detection and typing of HPVs were done by polymerase chain reaction (PCR) using consensus
primers followed by restriction enzyme digestion and PCR using type-specific primers. The prevalence of
total HPV infection in patients with cervical intraepithelial neoplasia (CIN) and cervical cancer were
significantly higher than those in healthy women and patients with atypical squamous cells of undetermined
significance (ASCUS). HPV typing in 41 invasive carcinomas of the cervix revealed the prevalence of HPV 16
in 15 cases, followed by HPV 58, 18, 33, 31, 52 and 35. The distribution pattern of HPV types in CIN were
not much different from carcinomas. HPV types except HPV 18 had a tendency to show higher prevalence in
high-grade squamous intraepithelial lesion (HSIL) than low-grade squamous intraepithelial lesions (LSIL),
however, HPV 18 was detected in LSIL but not in HSIL. HPV 18 tended to have the worse clinical stage,
although it was not statistically significant. These findings suggest the importance of HPV typing other
than HPV 16 and 18 and a different clinicopathologic significance of HPV 18.
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