Clinical progress of human papillomavirus genotypes and their persistent infection in subjects with atypical squamous cells of undetermined significance cytology: Statistical and latent dirichlet allocation analysis

The present study aimed to investigate differences in prognosis based on human papillomavirus (HPV) infection, persistent infection and genotype variations for patients exhibiting atypical squamous cells of undetermined significance (ASCUS) in their initial Papanicolaou (PAP) test results. A latent Dirichlet allocation (LDA)-based tool was developed that may offer a facilitated means of communication to be employed during patient-doctor consultations. The present study assessed 491 patients (139 HPV-positive and 352 HPV-negative cases) with a PAP test result of ASCUS with a follow-up period ≥2 years. Patients underwent PAP and HPV DNA chip tests between January 2006 and January 2009. The HPV-positive subjects were followed up with at least 2 instances of PAP and HPV DNA chip tests. The most common genotypes observed were HPV-16 (25.9%, 36/139), HPV-52 (14.4%, 20/139), HPV-58 (13.7%, 19/139), HPV-56 (11.5%, 16/139), HPV-51 (9.4%, 13/139) and HPV-18 (8.6%, 12/139). A total of 33.3% (12/36) patients positive for HPV-16 had cervical intraepithelial neoplasia (CIN)2 or a worse result, which was significantly higher than the prevalence of CIN2 of 1.8% (8/455) in patients negative for HPV-16 (P<0.001), while no significant association was identified for other genotypes in terms of genotype and clinical progress. There was a significant association between clearance and good prognosis (P<0.001). Persistent infection was higher in patients aged ≥51 years (38.7%) than in those aged ≤50 years (20.4%; P=0.036). Progression from persistent infection to CIN2 or worse (19/34, 55.9%) was higher than clearance (0/105, 0.0%; P<0.001). In the LDA analysis, using symmetric Dirichlet priors α=0.1 and β=0.01, and clusters (k)=5 or 10 provided the most meaningful groupings. Statistical and LDA analyses produced consistent results regarding the association between persistent infection of HPV-16, old age and long infection period with a clinical progression of CIN2 or worse. Therefore, LDA results may be presented as explanatory evidence during time-constrained patient-doctor consultations in order to deliver information regarding the patient’s status.