Consequently, as the prevalence of HPV-DNA in anal carcinoma commonly exceeds 90% [22, 34], our data on the interrelationship between HPV16 DNA load/p16INK4a immunostaining and Plk3 or pT273 caspase-8 expression may provide additional informations to a histopathological assessment. The gene discussed is CASP8; the disease is anal carcinoma.