Dermatology Online Journal

HPV in nail tumors
Antonella Tosti
Abstracts of the Fifth Meeting of the European Nail Society:DOJ 9(1): 17B

Department of Dermatology University of Bologna, Italy

---

Increasing evidence indicates that most squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) of the nail apparatus result from contact with human papillomavirus ( HPV), particularly HPV 16. Oncogenic HPV are in fact detected in up to 60% of lesions. Most tumors affect fingernails suggesting transmission of HPV from genital lesions. Using a hybridization technique similar HPV genomes were detected in a uterine cervical neoplasia and a subungual SCC of the same patient. Verrucous carcinoma ( VC) is a low-grade variant of SCC that most commonly affects the foot. We studied 7 patients with VC including 1 patient with a fingernail VC but did not find HPV DNA in any of these lesions. This suggests that HPV do not have a major role in the development of this tumor. Several cases of Bowen's disease of the nail bed and periungual area have been associated with HPV16 infection and we have recently detected a double infection from HPV 31 and 35 in a patient with distal digital keratoachantoma of the finger Clinical features and differential diagnosis of HPV induced nail tumors will be discussed.

© 2003 Dermatology Online Journal