Work

Application of Cobas 6800 HPV testing and qPCR utilizing three genomically-optimized primer sets for detecting HPV DNA in the blood of HPV Positive dysplasia and cancer patients

Year: 2026

Type: article

Abstract: Use of quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR) to measure viral DNA in plasma has promise for the detection and/or monitoring of high-risk human papillomavirus (hrHPV)-associated cancers. We examined Roche's cobas 6800 HPV test for detection of hrHPV in plasma or peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) of patients with HPV-associated dysplasia or cancer. In our pilot study, this assay detected hrHPV DNA in 1 mL pre-treatment plasma of patients with advanced (stage II-IV) cervical cancer, but not stage I or dysplasia cases, or in PBMC. Plasma of oropharyngeal cancer patients also tested positive in most cases. Seeking to enhance sensitivity, we re-tested these pilot samples with qPCR employing three published primer sets (E7, BR E1-5, HR E5L2-4) selected for improved detection of HPV16 in cancer. This triplex assay detected quantifiable levels of HPV16 in pre-treatment plasma of advanced (stage II-IV) cervical cancer cases, and lower levels in some stage I and dysplasia cases. In serial sampling of HPV16 + cervical cancer patients post-treatment with no evidence of disease over ~2 years, no reproducible signal was detected by cobas HPV testing, whereas the triplex qPCR sporadically detected HPV DNA in plasma and PBMC samples of a subset of these patients.

Source: PLoS ONE

DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0354671