HPV is a family of viruses with close to 200 strains. It infects the outermost layer of skin or the genitals called the squamous epithelium. HPV gets its name from the telltale warts or papillomas that it causes in these areas. Since HPV is a cancer-causing virus that also thrives in the epithelium, scientists have wanted to find out if ovarian tumors may also be caused by HPV.
The first study on HPV and ovarian cancer was performed in 1987, when Dr. Raymond H. Kaufman and his colleagues discovered HPV-6 DNA in 10 out of 12 patients with ovarian cancer. Following studies, however, have indicated no conclusive relation between HPV and tumors in the ovaries. These include a 1989 study headed by Dr. Jonathan Leake and studies by Dr. Robert McLellan, Drs. Ann-Marie Beckmann and Anne-Marie Trottier in 1990, 1991 and 1995, respectively.
In 1998, however, a study in China by doctors of the Jilin City Center Hospital discovered strong relations between ovarian growths and HPV types 16 and 18, the same HPV types that lead cervical cancer. Another study in the same year by a British team led by Dr. Tom Manolistas also indicate a relation between HPV 16 and ovarian tumors.
In 1999, Dr. Maarit Antilla and colleagues did a high-sensitivity analysis on 98 epithelial ovarian tumors as well as reviewed all the prior HPV-ovarian tumor studies performed with a total of 175 samples. They concluded that HPV is "highly impossible" to lead epithelial ovarian cancer.
Research performed in the past 10 years have been alikely contradicting. A 2003 study performed by doctors from the Inner Mongolia Medical College in China discovered that 36% of epithelial ovarian tumors in 50 cases had HPV-16.
Another study in 2005 discovered HPV-16 in 60% of ovarian tumors analyzed, but concluded that it was statistically insignificant. The researchers, led by Esra Kuscu of the Baskent University School of Medicine in Turkey, proved that HPV may cause some ovarian tumors by interacting with the tumor suppressing gene known as p53.
This was further strengthened by another study by Funda Atalay and colleagues at the Ankara Oncology Research and Educational Hospital. Out of 94 patients with ovarian cancer, they discovered 6 with HPV-16 and 2 with HPV-33.
In different, 20 ovarian tumors analyzed in 2006 by Jeffrey Quirk and his team were negative for HPV types 16, 18, and 33. Another case of HPV-related ovarian squamous cell cancer was informed widely by Dr. Jasper Verguts of the Belgian University Hospital Gasthuisberg in 2007. In Italy, 3 out of 71 patients with ovarian epithelial tumors were informed to have HPV in 2008.
In 2008, an article published by Giovanna Giordana and colleagues found that HPV, when present in ovarian growths, may not be the driving cause of tumors.
In the same year Dr. Brigitte Ronnett and her team confirmed that cancerous cervical tumors may very well tour or metastasize to the ovaries. It means that HPV-positive ovarian tumors may have perhaps come from alike growths in the cervix.
In 2011, Japanese researchers from the University of Toyama in Japan informs a case of ovarian squamous cell carcinoma that metastasized 8 years after a woman had a part of her cervix removed because of cervical tumors. One study published in 2008 is at odds with these findings, however. A group led by Nicolas Wentzensen of the University of Heidelberg in Germany tested for metastatic cervical tumor cells in 74 ovarian tumors but discovered none.
My conclusion
Basically, the relation between HPV and ovarian cancer is still debatable. While there are cases where HPV was discovered in ovarian epithelial tumors, it is still not obvious how it got there and how it can be linked to cancer. The only sure thing is that HPV in epithelial ovarian tumors are still very uncommon.
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