HPV-16, HPV-58, and HPV-33 are the most carcinogenic HPV genotypes in Southwestern China and their viral loads are associated with severity of premalignant lesions in the cervix

BACKGROUND: Currently, the role of human papillomavirus (HPV)-58 in southwestern China has been unexplored. Although there is some controversy, it is proposed that the viral load of HPV correlates with the severity of intraepithelial lesions. METHODS: We identified 7747 patients from south Sichuan and adjacent regions who were diagnosed with HPV between 2013 and 2017. The HR-HPV subtype distribution was analyzed and the patient’s viral loads were quantified using real-time RT-PCR. RESULTS: Among all 7747 patients screened for HPV genotypes, 1728 patients (22.31%) were identified as having HR-HPV subtypes. In patients without intraepithelial lesions (12.41%), HPV-52, HPV-16, and HPV-58 were the three most prevalent HR-HPV subtypes. Moreover, HPV-16, HPV-58, and HPV-33 were the most prevalent subtypes in patients with cervical intraepithelial neoplasia grade II (CINII) (42.86%) and grade III (CINIII) (59.81%), and accounted for the majority of invasive cervical cancer (ICC) (69.34%). Thus, viral loads of HPV-58, HPV-16, and HPV-33 positively correlated with the severity of cervical lesions (P < 0.001, P = 0.016, P = 0.026, respectively). Using receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve analysis, the optimum thresholds for predicting severe intraepithelial lesions of cases (CINI, CINIII and ICC) with HPV-16, HPV-58, and HPV-33, respectively, were obtained, which were 1, 0.93, and 0.25, respectively. CONCLUSION: In our study, we showed that HPV-16 was the most common carcinogenic HPV subtype in southwestern China followed by HPV-58 and HPV-33. Viral loads of these subtypes are associated with the severity of premalignant lesions in the cervix. ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The online version of this article (10.1186/s12985-018-1003-x) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.