Introduction

Bladder cancer is one of the most common urology malignancies worldwide, occupying most frequent causes of cancer-related mortality. Although multiple risk factors are known to be associated with bladder cancers, the initiating cause has not yet been identified.

Infection by high-risk (HR) Human Papillomaviruses (HPVs) have been implicated as causative agents in a variety of cancers and have also been found to cause close to half of vaginal, penile, anal and oral cancers, suggesting that HPV DNA might be transported from the original infection site to various other organs, where it may be responsible for cancer development.

Despite medical importance and high incidence rates of bladder cancer globally, no studies conducted in the UK have investigated the implication of HPV infection in bladder cancer development. This study aims to analyse bladder cancers for the presence of 12 HR-HPV types in the UK population.

Materials and Methods

Fresh bladder cancer tissues obtained from patients at Kingston Hospital, UK, have been analysed using DNA/RNA/Protein extraction followed by Polymerase chain reaction (PCR).

Results

A total of 49 Bladder samples have been analysed so far. Using DNA-PCR this study was able to detect the presence of HR-HPV DNA in 30% of Bladder tissues. The results have been verified using sanger sequencing.

Conclusions

Further sampling is required to clarify the presence and type distribution of HR-HPV in UCs. Moreover, this study will investigate the HPV activity in HPV-DNA positive samples. This will be followed by analysis into the mechanism of HPV activities on their target proteins.

An investigation into the association of Human Papillomavirus (HPV) and Bladder cancers