OBJECTIVETo investigate the correlation between the presence of human papillomavirus (HPV) DNA in the lymph nodes and histopathologically confirmed metastasis of early-stage cervical carcinoma.

METHODSHPV L1 gene fragment in paraffin-embedded tissue specimens of the primary tumor and pelvic lymph nodes from 31 patients with cervical cancer was amplified using HPV-specific PCR with general consensus primers GP5+/GP6+. The type of HPV was identified by sequence analysis of the PCR products, and the correlation between the presence of HPV DNA in the lymph node and the clinicopathological indices of cervical carcinoma was analyzed.

RESULTSThe positivity rate of HPV DNA in the pelvic lymph nodes was 58.1% in the 31 patients, and in 13 of the patients with confirmed metastasis, the detection rate was 84.6% as compared with the rate of 27.8% in the other 18 patients without metastases. The presence of HPV DNA in the lymph node was associated with histologically confirmed metastases. The results of both HPV DNA detection and pathological examination indicated that the obturator, internal iliac and external iliac lymph nodes were more liable to be positive for HPV DNA, accounting for over 90% of the positivity.

CONCLUSIONHPV DNA detection in the pelvic lymph nodes is a helpful predictive factor of metastases, and the obturator, internal iliac and external iliac lymph nodes are the among the most vulnerable lymph nodes of metastatic involvement by early-stage cervical carcinoma.