Human papillomavirus type 58: the unique role in cervical cancers in East Asia

A high prevalence of HPV58 among squamous cell carcinoma has been reported from China (28% in Shanghai, 10% in Hong Kong and 10% in Taiwan) and other countries in East Asia including Korea (16%) and Japan (8%). HPV58 ranks the third in Asia overall, but contributes to only 3.3% of cervical cancers globally. The reasons for a difference in disease attribution may lie on the host as well as the virus itself. HLA-DQB1*06 was found to associate with a higher risk of developing HPV58-positive cervical neoplasia in Hong Kong women, but not neoplasia caused by other HPV types. An HPV58 variant (E7 T20I, G63S) commonly detected in Hong Kong was found to confer a 6.9-fold higher risk of developing cervical cancer compared to other variants. A study involving 15 countries/cities has shown a predilection in the distribution of HPV58 variant lineages. Sublineage A1, the prototype derived from a cancer patient in Japan, was rare worldwide except in Asia.HPV58 accounts for a larger share of disease burden in East Asia, which may be a result of differences in host genetics as well as the oncogenicity of circulating variants. These unique characteristics of HPV58 should be considered in the development of next generation vaccines and diagnostic assays.Human papillomavirus (HPV) plays a necessary, though insufficient, role in the development of cervical cancer, which is the third most common cancer in women worldwide, just following breast and colorectal cancers [1,2]. It has been estimated that about 530 000 new cases and 275 000 deaths from the disease occurred in 2008. The incidence of cervical cancer varies dramatically across the world, which is mainly related to the availability and accessibility of cervical screening programs. Most places in South America and South and West Africa have an age-standardized incidence above 20 per 100 000 women per year, and some places in these regions have reached 40 per 100 000 women per year. In contrast, the age-standardized incidence rates