Case-Control Study of Cervicovaginal Beta-/Gamma-HPV Infection in Women with HIV and Its Relation with Incident Cervical Precancer

J Infect Dis. 2024 Nov 27:jiae588. doi: 10.1093/infdis/jiae588. Online ahead of print.

Abstract

We studied cervicovaginal β-/γ-human papillomavirus (HPV) and their relationship to cervical precancer in women with HIV (WWH); having previously reported strong positive associations of β-/γ-HPV with incident head and neck cancer in the general population. Cases (N=124) had cervical intraepithelial neoplasia (CIN)-3 or CIN-2. Controls (N=247) were individually matched 2:1 to cases. Unexpectedly, multivariate analyses found strong inverse associations between β-/γ-HPV and CIN-2/CIN-3 (OR=0.19; 95% CI 0.04-0.86; P=0.03) with Ptrend<0.01. This is, to our knowledge, the first study of β-/γ-HPV and cervical precancer. If confirmed, a strong inverse (protective) association would be of potential clinical and biologic relevance.

Keywords: CIN-3; Women with HIV (WWH); cervical precancer; human immunodeficiency Virus (HIV); human papillomavirus (HPV); β-/γ-HPV.