The occurrence of human papillomavirus-HPV in the biopsies from colon polyps and cancer.

: Human papillomaviruses (HPV) infection can be associated with benign (warts) and malignant (precancer and cancer) genital, perianal and oral lesions. The role of HPV in the pathogenesis of colonorectal cancer and adenomas is still undetermined. We investigated the occurrence of nononcogenic HPV 6/11 and oncogenic 16/18 DNA in colon cancer, polyps and normal tissue using PCR. HPV 16/18 were detected more frequently in colon cancers (67%) and adenomas (56%) than in normal colon mucosa (28%). In case of HPV 6/11 the differences were not significant. The results suggest the possible role of HPV 16/18 in pathogenesis of colon cancers and polyps.