Evaluation of Immune Response Against Human Papillomavirus (HPV)in Patients With Metastatic Cancer of the Anal Canal

Complete response is a rare event in metastatic anal cancer in the case of unresectable recurrence after radiochemotherapy. In the University Hospital Center of Besançon, 8 patients with metastatic anal cancer were treated between 2005 and 2008 by 6 cycles of chemotherapy including taxane: DCF (Docetaxel, Cisplatin and 5-Fluorouracil. In more than 90% of cases, anal cancers are related to Human Papilloma Virus (HPV) infection, that is the case of this patients for which HPV16 (human papillomavirus type 16) genotype was identified within the tumor samples. The hypothesis is that an anti-HPV response immune could be generated by chemotherapy with DCF and contributed to the elimination of the tumour cells and to the increase of complete responses. The aim to this study is to analyze immune response against HPV in this patients in complete response.