Cancer stages and demographical study of HPV16 in gene L2 isolated from cervical cancer in Dhi-Qar province, Iraq

The most carcinogenic form of HPV is the high-risk human papillomavirus 16 (hrHPV16). However, only a few hrHPV16 infections develop into cancer. Demographic variants within the HPV16 genotype have been proposed to give differentiation into carcinogenicity. To investigate the implications of the risk of hrHPV16 variants among women in Dhi-Qar province/Iraq, during the period from 2017 to 2020, a case-control review was done as a control for 93 women with cervical cancer and 60 healthy individuals. The age of patients varied from 32 to 78 years, and the majority of people with cervical cancer ranged from 43-52 years (37%) to 32-42 years (30%) and 63-78 years, respectively (20%). Moreover, most of the cases appeared in 2018 (36%) and 2019 (29%), while the fewest cases appeared in 2017 (17%) and 2020 (18%). Further, this showed a significant difference. Therefore, the present survey detected the highest hrHPV16 infections in 2019 (78%) and 2020 (69%). Lowest infections (47%) were reported in the year 2017. Viral infections were common among young women and the infection rate decreased among older women. On the other hand, the distribution of HPV16 infections according to cervical cancer stages showed that the highest infections appeared in stage IV (70%) followed by III (68%), II (60%), and stage 0 (60%). hrHPV16 infections increased in Dhi-Qar province/Iraq during recent years especially in young women, and are associated with cervical cancer progression.