OBJECTIVETo evaluate the roles of expression and early protein E2 and E6 load of human papillomavirus type 16 (HPV16) on cervical cancer in order to explore the relation between disruption of E2 and development of cervical cancer.

METHODSA case-control study was conducted, including 141 cervical cancer patients as cases who had been diagnosed by cytological approaches and histological approaches in Shanxi province Tumor Hospital, China. Two type of controls including 137 hospital controls with hysteromyoma by cytology or histology and eligible 129 controls from 1582 healthy women in the community who took part in community-organized physical examination with neither CIN2-3 nor invasive cancer, nor other gynecologic diseases were recruited. HPV16 E2 and E6 oncogenes were detected by multiple polymerase chain reaction (multi-PCR). The levels of E2 and E6 were analyzed used Bio-1D+ + software provided by VILBER pattern formatter.

RESULTSThe positive rates of HPV16 E6 in cancer cases (46.8%) were significantly higher than that in hysteromyoma group (24.1%) or healthy control group (2.3%) and accounted for 2.77 of OR (95% CI: 1.66-4.63) and 36.96 of OR(95% CI: 11.22-121.71) respectively. The expressions and loads of HPV16 E6 and E2 in cases were significantly higher than that in two control groups. Meanwhile, the expression or level of E6 was higher than that of E2 in each group. Disruption rate of E2 was 22.73% and the ratio of E6 to E2 was 1.24 in cervical cancer group.

CONCLUSIONThe positive rates and levels of HPV16 E6 or E2 found in cervical cancer were higher than that in hysteromyoma and healthy women. High expression of E6 and disruption of E2 might play an important role in the development of HPV-induced cervical cancer.