Background: Tumour necrosis factor alpha (TNF-α) inhibitors are associated with an increased risk of infections and with a still debatable risk of skin cancer. Furthermore, cutaneous human papillomavirus (HPV) infection may be involved in skin cancer.
Objectives: Our primary objective was to assess the HPV DNA prevalence in psoriasis patients treated with TNF inhibitors and the secondary objective was to assess the same parameter before and during treatment.
Methods: Plucked eyebrow hairs were collected from 151 consecutive patients with moderate to severe chronic plaque psoriasis, including 48 patients treated with anti-TNF-α agents, 21 patients treated with methotrexate (MTX) and 82 patients with no previous systemic treatment. Among them, 38 patients were subsequently treated with either MTX or anti-TNF-α agents. HPV genotyping was performed using the HPV type-specific E7 PCR bead-based multiplex allowing the detection of 27 genus-α types, 25 genus-β types, 16 genus-γ types and one single genus-μ type. Follow-up provided a total of 972.7 person-months of overall exposure for patients treated with TNF inhibitors and 326.9 person-months for patients treated with MTX.
Results: Our data confirm the high prevalence of β-HPV infection in healthy skin of psoriasis patients (68.9%), with no significant difference between untreated patients (64.6%), patients treated with MTX (76.2%) and patients treated with anti-TNF-α agents (72.9%). The mean number of different HPV types and the distribution of HPV types were similar in different groups of patients. Moreover, in prospectively treated patients, we did not observe any change in the HPV DNA prevalence in the distribution of HPV types and the number of HPV types after a mean duration of treatment of 332 ± 39.8 days.
Conclusion: Despite the small number of patients in our cohort, our results are quite encouraging in view of the increased use of anti-TNF-α agents in different auto inflammatory immune diseases.
© 2013 European Academy of Dermatology and Venereology.