1. ¹Viral Oncology and AIDS Reference Centre, National Cancer Institute 'Fond. Pascale', Cappella Cangiani, I-80131 Naples, Italy
2. ²Uganda Eye Project, PO Box 4008, Kampala, Uganda
3. ³Uganda Virus Research Institute, PO Box 49, Entebbe, Uganda
4. ⁴Department of Histopathology, Guy's, King's & St Thomas' School of Medicine, St Thomas' Hospital, London SE1, UK

Correspondence: Dr FM Buonaguro, E-mail: irccsvir@unina.it

Received 17 October 2005; Accepted 25 November 2005; Published online 10 January 2006.

Abstract

Mucosal, cutaneous and Epidermodysplasia verruciformis (EV)-related human papillomaviruses (HPVs) were searched by broad-spectrum PCR in 86 conjunctival neoplasia biopsies and 63 conjunctival non-neoplastic control tissue from Ugandan subjects. Seven different EV-related HPV types, including a putative new HPV, and two mucosal HPVs were detected in 25% (14 out of 56) of HIV-positive, in 10% (three out of 30) of HIV-negative conjunctival neoplasia samples, and rarely (0–1.6%) in control subjects. The absence of high-risk HPVs and the low detection frequency of EV-related HPV types in more advanced tumour stages (10%) raise doubts about their role in conjunctival carcinomas.