Detection of human papillomavirus mRNA and cervical cancer cells in peripheral blood of cervical cancer patients with metastasis.

PURPOSETo determine the presence of cervical cancer cells in circulating peripheral blood of stage IVb cervical cancer patients with metastasis to distant organs.PATIENTS AND METHODSCervical cancer tissue from 15 stage IVb cervical cancer patients with metastasis were analyzed for the presence of human papillomavirus (HPV) type 16 DNA by nested polymerase chain reaction (PCR). The presence of transcriptional products of the HPV type 16 E6-transforming gene in the peripheral blood of the same 15 cancer patients was analyzed by reverse transcription and PCR. Cervical tissues and peripheral-blood specimens from 12 normal healthy individuals served as controls.RESULTSThirteen of 15 (86.7%) cervical cancer tissues from same number of patients were found to contain HPV type 16 DNA. Peripheral-blood specimens from 12 of 13 (92.3%) cervical HPV DNA-positive patients were found to contain HPV-specific mRNA detectable by reverse transcription (RT) and PCR. Cervical tissues from all 12 normal controls were HPV-free....