Biases in human papillomavirus genotype prevalence assessment associated with commonly used consensus primers.

Consensus primers targeting human papillomaviruses (HPVs) have biases in sensitivity toward certain HPV types. We applied 3 primer sets (GP5+/6+, MY09/11, PGMY09/11) in parallel on 120 Chinese cervical cancer specimens. GP5+/6+ exhibited a poor sensitivity for HPV52, for which the prevalence among squamous cell cervical cancer was underestimated from 14.6% to 0%. The fact that HPV52 should rank second in prevalence among squamous cell cervical carcinoma in Hong Kong could be missed if GP5+/6+, a worldwide commonly used primer set, was selected for HPV detection. Biases in HPV type-specific sensitivity may result in misprioritization of vaccine candidates.