Abstract:

Objective To study the relationship of HHV-8 K15 allelotypes in cutaneous and esophageal squamous cell carcinoma （SCC） tissue with tumorigenesis. Methods Sequence specific primer-nested PCR was performed to detect HHV-8 K15 gene and to determine its allelotype in paraffin-embedded tissue specimens from 40 patients with cutaneous SCC and 40 patients with esophageal SCC. Chi-square test was used for statistical analysis. Results HHV-8 K15 P allele was detected in 9 （22.5%） of the cutaneous SCC specimens and 8 （20%） of the esophageal SCC specimens. There was no significant difference in the detection rate of HHV-8 between cutaneous SCC and esophageal SCC specimens （P > 0.05）. HHV-8 K15 M allele was undetected in this study. Conclusions SCC tissues appear to harbor only HHV-8 K15 P allele, and HHV-8 may play a part in the initiation and progression of SCC.

Key words: K15