Concordance of oral HPV prevalence between patients with oropharyngeal cancer and their partners.
BACKGROUND
Human papilloma virus (HPV) is a known causative factor in oropharyngeal squamous cell cancer (OPC). In this prospective study, we sought to define the risk of HPV transmission between OPC patients and their sexual partners by performing HPV genotyping on oral cytology brushings.


METHODS
Newly diagnosed OPC patients and their sexual partners underwent oral mouth swabs and answered a risk factor questionnaire. Patient tumor samples and oral swabs from both the patient and partner were assessed for HPV status and genotyped using Easy-Chip HPV Blot PCR.


RESULTS
We enrolled 227 patient-partner pairs and obtained sufficient analyzable DNA from both members in 198 pairs. Of 144 patients with available OPC tumor tissue, 128 (89 %) had HPV-positive tumors by either in situ hybridization or p16 immunohistochemical analysis (104 or 121, respectively). In total, there were 28 patients and 30 partners who were HPV positive by oral swab. The prevalence rate of oral HPV in partners was 15 %. There were 39 patient-partner pairs who had one or both members returning positive for HPV in the oral swab, and 49 % of these pairs were concordant for their HPV-genotype. Female partners had a higher oral HPV prevalence (16 %) than did male partners (11 %). Patients who were non-white were also found to have a higher oral prevalence of HPV (p = 0.032) by mouth swab.


CONCLUSIONS
Partners of OPC patients may have a higher prevalence of oral HPV and should be studied prospectively to understand their OPC risk. Additional future research is needed to identify oral HPV persistence in partners to OPC patients and to determine the optimal sampling methods and technologies to screen patients at high risk for HPV-related disease.
Departments of Thoracic & Head and Neck Medical Oncology, Unit 432, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, 1515 Holcombe Blvd., Houston, TX 77030 USA.
Anne S
AS
Tsao
Departments of Thoracic & Head and Neck Medical Oncology, Unit 432, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, 1515 Holcombe Blvd., Houston, TX 77030 USA.
Vassiliki
V
Papadimitrakopoulou
Biostatistics, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX 77030 USA.
Heather
H
Lin
Pathology, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX 77030 USA.
Ming
M
Guo
Biostatistics, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX 77030 USA.
J Jack
JJ
Lee
Department of Otolaryngology Head/Neck Surgery, The Cancer Center and School of Medicine Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94305 USA.
F Christopher
FC
Holsinger
Division of Cancer Medicine, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX 77030 USA.
Waun Ki
WK
Hong
Department of Head and Neck Surgery, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX 77030 USA.
Erich M
EM
Sturgis
HPV; Oropharyngeal cancer; Partner transmission