Cervical cancer is regarded as a sexually transmitted disease caused by the human papilloma virus (HPV) detected in up to 80 per cent of the cancer biopsies. Genetic susceptibility of a p53 allelic variant has been postulated to play a vital role in carcinogenesis. This study was aimed at determining the allelic frequencies of p53 codon 72 polymorphism in Papua New Guinean women and also assessing the presence of HPV in cervical cancer biopsies. Peripheral blood (3-5 mL) was collected from 53 healthy females of reproductive age (19-37 years) with no known past and current history of HPV infections. Sixty-two cervical biopsies along with cervical swaps were obtained from patients (19-54 years) with clinical symptoms and histopathological confirmation of cervical cancer. DNA was extracted from the peripheral blood samples and cervical samples. Exon 4 was amplified with PCR and further genotypic analyses performed by Restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP) and single-stranded conformational polymorphism (SSCP). Of the 53 normal samples analyzed, 3.8 % (2/53) were Arginine homozygous, 58.5 % were Proline homozygous and 37.7 % were heterozygous. For the cancer samples, 14.5 % (9/62) were Arginine homozygous, 54.8 % were Proline homozygous and 30.7% were heterozygous. HPV genome was detected in 83.9 % (52/62) of the cervical cancer samples. The genotypic trend and allelic frequencies were consistent with literature.

The allele and genotype frequency values of the three tetranucleotide short tandem repeat (STR) loci, D7S820, D13S317 and D16S359, were analysed in blood samples of 25 unrelated randomly selected individuals in the National Capital District, Papua New Guinea. Gene-Print Silver-STR III Multiplex kit (Promega Corp., Medison, WI, USA) was used for the PCR amplification in GeneAmp®PCR System 9700 thermal cycler (Applied iosystems). Data analysis was carried out using the PowerStatsV12.xl workbook template obtained from Promega Corporation. The three STR loci were in Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium. Five alleles (9 – 13) were identified for D16S539, five alleles (8 – 12) for D7S820 and six alleles (8, 9, 11 – 14) for D13S317. No new or microvariant alleles were observed. The most frequent genotypes for D16S539 were 11-11 and 11-12; for D7S820 were 10-11 and 12-12; for D13S317 was 8-12. Observed Heterozygosity was highest in D13S317 (0.880). The combined power of discrimination was 0.99733 and the combined power of exclusion was 0.9363. The data suggests that the three loci are useful for identity testing, forensics and for solving paternity cases among the population in National Capital District, Papua New Guinea.