High-risk human papillomaviruses (HPVs) are considered risk factors in the origin of several human malignancies, such as breast, cervical, head and neck, as well as colorectal cancers. However, there are no data reported on the HPV status in colorectal cancer in the State of Qatar. Therefore, we herein examined the presence of high-risk HPVs (16, 18, 31, 33, 35, 45, 51, 52, and 59), using polymerase chain reaction (PCR) in a cohort of 100 Qatari colorectal cancer patients, and their association with tumor phenotype. We found that high-risk HPV types 16, 18, 31, 35, 45, 51, 52, and 59 were present in 4, 36, 14, 5, 14, 6, 41, and 17% of our samples, respectively. Overall, 69 (69%) of the 100 samples were HPV positive; among these, 34/100 (34%) were positive for single HPV subtypes, while 35/100 (35%) of the samples were positive for two or more HPV subtypes. No significant association was noted between the presence of HPV and tumor grade, stage, or location. However, the presence of coinfection of HPV subtypes strongly correlated with advanced stage (stage 3 and 4) colorectal cancer, indicating that the copresence of more than one HPV subtype can significantly worsen the prognosis of colorectal cancer. The results from this study imply that coinfection with high-risk HPV subtypes is associated with the development of colorectal cancer in the Qatari population.
Keywords: Qatar; colorectal cancer; high-risk HPV coinfection; human papillomavirus.