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Epidermodysplasia-associated HPV types Background: Cowden syndrome (CS) or multiple hamar-toma syndrome is a cancer-associated genodermatosis inherited in an autosomal dominant pattern. One of the diagnostic criteria is facial papules which are felt to be trichilemmomas, benign hair follicle tumors, which some consider to be induced by human papillomavirus (HPV). Objective: To search for HPV in skin tumors, espe-cially trichilemmomas, from patients with CS. Methods: Skin lesions from patients with CS were classified histo-logically. Each tumor was then analyzed for HPV DNA by polymerase chain reaction with different primer sets; positive amplicons were typed by direct sequencing. Results: Twenty-nine biopsies from 7 patients with C