Journal of Medical Virology 83:115–118 (2011) Low Prevalence of HPV in Brazilian Children With Retinoblastoma Ce ´ lia B.G. Antoneli, 1,2 * Karina B. Ribeiro, 3 Simone T. Sredni, 4 Victor E.A. Arias, 1 Maria A. Andreoli, 5 Beatriz de Camargo, 1 Joa ˜ o S. Sobrinho, 5 Jose ´ C.M. Prado, 5 Fernando A. Soares, 1 and Luisa L. Villa 5 1 HospitalA C Camargo, Sa˜o Paulo, Brazil 2 Department of Oncology, School of Medicine, Universidade de Santo Amaro, Sa˜o Paulo, Brazil 3 Departmentof SocialMedicine, Faculdade de Cieˆncias Me´dicas daSanta Casa de Sa˜oPaulo, Sa˜o Paulo, Brazil 4 Children’s Memorial Research Center, Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine, Chicago, Illinois 5 Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research, Sa˜o Paulo, Brazil Retinoblastoma is the most frequent intra- ocular malignant tumor of the childhood, occur- ring in 1 of 18,000–30,000 live births. Little is known about the causes of sporadic retinoblas- toma and only a few authors have investigated the etiologic role of human papillomavirus (HPV), with controversial results. Formalin-fixed, paraf- fin-embedded tissue blocks containing retino- blastoma were retrieved from the archives of the Department of Pathology at Hospital A C Camargo, Sa ˜ o Paulo, Brazil. All patients were treated with enucleation (21 children had both eyes enucleated). Retinoblastoma and, when possible, normal retina of each specimen, were micro-dissected under direct light microscopic visualization by using a PixCell II Laser Capture Micro-dissection System. The DNA quality was evaluated by polymerase chain reaction (PCR) amplification of 110 base pairs fragment of the human b-globin gene using primers PCO3þ/ PCO4þ. All globin positive specimens were analyzed by PCR for the presence of HPV DNA using consensus primers GP5þ/GP6þ. A total of 154 specimens were evaluated. Forty-four patients also had normal retinal specimens available for analysis of DNA HPV. The DNA HPV prevalence among all tumor specimens was 4.6% (95% CI 2.0; 8.8) (7 positive specimens/153 adequate specimens). Among normal retinal specimens, the DNA HPV prevalence was 9.1% (95% CI 2.9; 20.5) (4 positive specimens/44 speci- mens). There was no statistically significant difference between these rates (P ¼ 0.318). Excluding any experimental failure, our results indicate a low prevalence of HPV DNA in retino- blastomas. We were therefore unable to conclude about the association between these oncogenic viruses and this rare pediatric neoplasm. J. Med. Virol. 83:115 – 118, 2011. ß 2010 Wiley-Liss, Inc. KEY WORDS: human papillomavirus; retino- blastoma; eye tumors; children INTRODUCTION Retinoblastoma is the most frequent intra-ocular malignant tumor of the childhood, occurring in 1 of 18,000–30,000 live births [Abramson and Schefler, 2004]. In Brazil, according to data from population- based cancer registries, high incidence can be observed in Natal (15.5 cases/million/year—boys) and Sa ˜o Paulo (8.5 cases/million/year—girls) [INCA, 2008]. Retinoblastoma occurs in two forms: sporadic or non-heritable (unilateral, corresponding to 60–70% of all cases) and heritable or germinal (10% unilateral and 20–30% bilateral) [Knudson, 1971; Abramson, 1982]. Patients with bilateral tumor or familial history present the heritable form, serving as a classical example of a cancer deriving from a heritable genetic anomaly [Stiller, 2004]. The disease is resulting from two mutations on tumor suppressor gene RB1. In heritable cases, this first mutation is pre-zygotic, while for sporadic tumors both mutations are somatic and occurring in only one retinal cell [Albert and Dryja, 1988]. There is still a lack of information about the causes of sporadic retinoblastoma. Schultz had reported that the high incidence observed in developing countries could be related to vitamin A or folates deficiency as well as increased exposure to adenovirus and papillomavirus *Correspondence to: Ce ´lia B.G. Antoneli, Rua Vergueiro, 3645 – apto. 511, Sa ˜o Paulo, SP, Brazil. E-mail: cantoneli@terra.com.br Accepted 20 July 2010 DOI 10.1002/jmv.21925 Published online in Wiley Online Library (wileyonlinelibrary.com). ß 2010 WILEY-LISS, INC.