WNAG Xiaoqin, WANG Hui, XU Zhengjun, ZHANG Changhong, WANG Changhong.
Objective To investigate the relationship between non-16/18 high-risk human papillomavirus (HPV) infection and cervical precancerous lesions. Methods A retrospective study was conducted on 1 154 patients who were positive for non-16/18 high-risk HPV and negative for liquid-based thin-layer cytology test (TCT) at Fuyang People's Hospital from January 2020 to October 2024. All patients underwent colposcopic cervical biopsy. The correlations between infection type, HPV subtype, age, and pathological results were analyzed. Results Among the patients, 861 cases (74.61%) had single-type infection, and 293 cases (25.39%) had mixed-type infection. The detection rate of mixed high-risk HPV cases was significantly higher than that of mixed high-and low-risk HPV cases (18.72% vs 6.67%, P<0.05). Pathological results showed that the detection rates of <low-grade squamous intraepithelial lesion (LSIL), high-grade squamous intraepithelial lesion (HSIL), and squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) were 74.44%, 13.86%, 11.61%, and 0.09% respectively. The detection rate of HSIL in patients with mixed-type infection was significantly higher than that in patients with single-type infection (17.75% vs 9.52%, P<0.05). The top 8 subtypes of single-type infection were HPV 52, 58, 53, 68, 31, 39, 56, and 33 in sequence. The subtypes mainly associated with LSIL were HPV 68, 58, and 59, while those mainly associated with HSIL were HPV 68, 58, and 52. Significant differences were observed in HPV subtypes 33, 52, 59, and 68 between LSIL and HSIL groups (P<0.05). In terms of age distribution, patients aged 35~44 years accounted for the highest proportion (32.32%), and patients aged ≥65 years had the highest detection rate of precancerous lesions (42.86%). The detection rate of HSIL increased with the increase in age groups. Conclusions Patients with non-16/18 high-risk HPV infection still have a relatively high risk of lesions above HSIL. For cases with non-16/18 high-risk HPV infection and negative TCT results, it is still necessary to perform a colposcopic cervical biopsy.