Somatic Mutations in 3,929 HPV-Positive Exfoliated Cervical Cell Samples

We investigated the detection, timing, and HPV type specificity of cervical somatic hotspot mutations (i.e., previously reported cancer driver mutations) in 3,929 HPV-positive exfoliated cervical cell samples from individuals undergoing routine cervical screening in the U.S. using deep-targeted sequencing of 20 candidate genes. Our study included samples from 3,351 women with the following infection outcomes: 1,478 HPV16-, HPV18- and/or HPV45-positive controls (i.e., HPV infections that did not progress to precancer and/or subsequently cleared), 1,712 cervical precancers, and 161 invasive cervical cancers. We utilized residual exfoliated cervical cell samples from women routinely screened for cervical cancer precursors at Kaiser Permanente Northern California (KPNC) as part of the prospective KPNC-NCI HPV Persistence and Progression (PaP) cohort. We included 3,929 samples collected from these 3,351 women, including 974 serial sample from 396 women collected prior to their most recent screening visit to evaluate somatic hotspot mutation detection prior to diagnosis. ]]>