**3. Results**

A total of 182 asymptomatic/control samples and 150 anal cancer samples were subjected to WGS. In the anal cancer cohort, 119/150 (79.3%) samples passed the quality parameters, and in the asymptomatic men cohort, 134/182 (73.6%) were valid. This left a total of 253 samples for inclusion for detailed sequencing/phylogenetic analysis. Twentyfive of these sequences were also analyzed by the International HPV Reference Center as a further quality control for analysis. Results showed 100% agreement.
