[Human papillomavirus infection in oropharyngeal squamous cell carcinoma and prognosis: a preliminary analysis of 66 cases].
OBJECTIVE
To analyze the relationship between the prognosis of patients with oropharyngeal squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) and human papillomavirus (HPV) infection in OSCC.


METHODS
Sixty-six patients with oropharyngeal carcinoma who met the enrollment criteria during the period from January 1999 to December 2009 were retrospectively reviewed. The presence or absence of HPV oncogenic types in OSCC specimen was determined by multiplex polymerase chain reaction (PCR). Overall survival (OS) and disease specific survival (DSS) for HPV-positive and HPV-negative patients were estimated by Kaplan-Meier analysis. Cox regression model was used for multivariate analysis.


RESULTS
HPV-DNA was detected in 11(16.7%) of all specimens. Among them, 7 were positive for HPV-16, 1 for HPV-16/11, 1 for HPV-35, 1 for HPV-58/52, and 1 for HPV-33/52/54. With the follow-up of 3-78 months (a median of 24.5 months), patients with HPV-positive tumors had significantly better overall survival (χ2=5.792, P=0.016) and disease specific survival (χ2=4.721, P=0.030), the 3-year OS and DSS were 90.0% vs 52.4% and 90.0% vs 56.4%, respectively. Multivariate analysis by Cox regression model showed that HPV infection and nodal status were both independent prognostic factors for patients with OSCC (P<0.05).


CONCLUSIONS
Patients with HPV-positive OSCC have significantly better prognosis than patients with HPV-negative tumors. HPV infection is an independent prognostic factor.
Department of Head and Neck Surgery, Cancer Hospital, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences, Peking Union Medical College, Beijing 100021, China.
Hui
H
Huang
Bin
B
Zhang
Wen
W
Chen
Shuang-mei
SM
Zhou
Yong-xia
YX
Zhang
Li
L
Gao
Zhen-gang
ZG
Xu
You-lin
YL
Qiao
Ping-zhang
PZ
Tang
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D002294:Carcinoma, Squamous Cell / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000821:virology*; D005260:Female; D052162:Human papillomavirus 16; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009959:Oropharyngeal Neoplasms / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000821:virology*; D030361:Papillomavirus Infections / Q000473:pathology*; D011379:Prognosis; D012189:Retrospective Studies