A recent case study published in the New England Journal of Medicine has discovered a link between human papillomavirus (HPV) and a particularly aggressive form of skin cancer. The report focused on a 34-year-old woman diagnosed with over 40 squamous cell carcinomas (SCC), the second most common type of skin cancer.
The patient also had numerous wart-like growths in her mouth and on her skin, attributed to an HPV infection. Researchers performed a genetic analysis on a recurrent tumour on her forehead and found that HPV had integrated into the tumour's DNA. Unlike typical SCC, which shows mutations caused by ultraviolet radiation, this cancer was driven by the virus.
The specific strain identified was HPV19, which infects skin but had not previously been linked to cancer. The patient had a history of immune problems, including a mutation in the ZAP70 gene that partially impaired T-cell function. This prevented her body from recognising and eliminating HPV-infected cells.
After receiving a stem cell transplant that replaced her immune cells with fully functioning ones from a donor, the woman made a complete recovery. Her new T-cells were able to destroy the HPV-infected cells, including the skin cancer. The case highlights how immune dysfunction can allow a common virus to become carcinogenic.
