Significance of Combined Analysis of High-Risk Human Papillomaviruses Polymerized Chain Reaction Analysis and Immunohistochemical Expression of p16INK4A in Cervical Cancer in a Cohort of South-Indian Population

Introduction Cervical cancer is the fourth most frequent cancer in women worldwide, and it continues to be a big issue in developing countries. The current case-control study sought to determine the presence of high-risk human papillomaviruses (hr-HPV) in the development of cervical cancer, as well as their relationship with the cell cycle inhibitor gene p16INK4A in cervical cancer. Methods The association between p16INK4A protein and the presence of hr-HPV DNA in cervical lesions was explored in this study, which included 150 cervical cancer patients and 100 normal cervix samples. The immunohistochemistry approach was used to identify the expression of the p16INK4A protein, while the semi-quantitative polymerized chain reaction (PCR) method was used to identify the genomic identity of hr-HPV. Results About 90.67% (n=136) of the 150 case samples were found to be hr-HPV positive. Within the 136 HPV-positive samples, 45 (33.08%) show moderate expression of the p16INK4A protein, whereas 91 (66.91%) show overexpression, which is statistically significant (0.05). Among the 136 HPV-positive samples, 22.08% (N=30) were classified as having cervical intraepithelial neoplasia (CIN), with 56.66% (n=17) having CIN3, 36.66% (n=11) having CIN2, and 6.67% (n=2) having CIN1. Conclusion Based on the semi-quantitative immune staining scoring method of p16INK4A protein, genomic expression of HPV demonstrates that the expression of p16INK4A protein increases with the infectious load of the hr-HPV genome in the host cell. The result directly shows that immunostaining of the p16INK4A protein, in conjunction with the assessment of high-risk HPV in the host genome, will aid in the identification of cervical cancer in the cervix.