ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Oncol.
Sec. Molecular and Cellular Oncology
Volume 15 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fonc.2025.1584677
This article is part of the Research TopicSquamous Cell Carcinomas – HPV, or No HPV, That Is The QuestionView all articles
Prevalence of Human Papillomavirus Genotypes in Latvia Among Women Participating in Cervical Cancer Screening
Provisionally accepted
Anna Stasulane1,2*
Justine Grundmane2,3Kristiana Sulte1,4Janis Stasulans1,2Solvita Cernavska1,2Laura Smite2,3- 1Riga Stradiņš University, Riga, Latvia
- 2E. Gulbja Laboratory, Riga, Riga, Latvia
- 3University of Latvia, Riga, Latvia
- 4Riga Maternity Hospital, Riga, Latvia
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Background and Objectives. The propensity of human papillomavirus (HPV) to cause cervical cancer is linked to specific genotypes varying in carcinogenicity. The focus of this study is to provide insight into the most prevalent HPV genotypes in Latvia among women participating in cervical cancer screening. The prevalence data presented in this study are derived from routine screening. The data is drawn from the first two years, between July 1st, 2022, and July 1st, 2024, of the reorganized screening programme that now, for the first time, includes HPV genotyping as a primary screening method in 30-70-year-old women. The testing was performed in an accredited laboratory using a commercial kit detecting 14 HPV genotypes. Results. The overall prevalence among 30-70-year-old women participating in cervical cancer screening in Latvia was 12,04%. HPV 16 was found to be the most prevalent HPV genotype in this study, followed by HPV 68, HPV 31, HPV 66, HPV 52, HPV 56, HPV 51, HPV 45, HPV 33, HPV 39, HPV 18, HPV 58, HPV 59, and HPV 35. Across all age categories, a single infection was the most prevalent form – among these infections, 81.82% of women tested positive for one HPV genotype, with an average of 1.23 genotypes per positive sample. HPV single infection and co-infection tended to decrease with age, except for a slight increase in the oldest age group, 60 to 70-year-old women. There was a significant difference in the overall prevalence of HPV infection across the various age groups.Conclusions. These results offer significant epidemiological data that could be further used in cervical cancer screening, prognosis, the implementation of HPV vaccines targeting specific genotypes in this region, and HPV genotype epidemiological distribution monitoring.
Keywords: HPV1, cervical cancer2, genotypes3, distribution4, Latvia5
Received: 27 Feb 2025; Accepted: 09 Jun 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Stasulane, Grundmane, Sulte, Stasulans, Cernavska and Smite. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Anna Stasulane, Riga Stradiņš University, Riga, Latvia
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