Second malignancies in B‐cell chronic lymphocytic leukaemia: possible association with human papilloma virus

Second primary malignancies have long been associated with chronic lymphocytic leukaemia (CLL). We assessed secondary tumour samples from CLL and control patients for the presence of human papilloma virus (HPV). 132 CLL patients with 44 second malignancies were compared to a matched randomly-identified control population of 264 non-CLL patients with 54 solid malignancies. Polymerase chain reaction was performed with the highly conserved MY09/MY11 HPV primer. None of control samples were HPV-positive, while 53% of samples from the CLL group were positive. This report describes preliminary evidence for the presence of HPV in secondary malignancies, in patients with CLL.