Prevalence and clinical features of human papillomavirus in head and neck squamous cell carcinoma in Okinawa, southern Japan

Abstract

Previous studies from Okinawa, a subtropical island in southern Japan, demonstrated a higher prevalence of human papillomavirus (HPV) in oral carcinoma and a higher incidence of oral and pharyngeal carcinoma than those for mainland Japan. The present study aims to investigate epidemiologic and clinical features of HPV in head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC) in Okinawa. A total of 150 DNA samples from 150 Okinawan patients with head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC) were screened for HPV sequences by PCR using three consensus primer sets, and HPV types were determined by direct sequencing. The samples were consisted of 46 cases from the hypopharynx, 44 from the oropharynx, 16 from the larynx, 25 from the oral cavity, 10 from the maxillary sinus, and 9 from the nasopharynx. HPV DNA was detected in 45 (30.0%) HNSCCs, and HPV-16 was identified in 86.7% of positive specimens. The highest prevalence of the HPV sequence was found in oropharyngeal carcinomas (50.0%), especially in tonsillar cancer (63.6%). Multivariate analysis showed that oropharyngeal carcinoma (P = 0.002; OR = 5.34; 95% CI = 1.83-15.58), oral cavity carcinoma (P = 0.012; OR = 4.94; 95% CI = 1.43-17.10), and histological poor differentiation (P = 0.011; OR = 4.25; 95% CI = 1.39-13.04) each independently increased the prevalence of HPV infection. The present study reveals that patients with HNSCC, e.g., oropharyngeal and oral cavity carcinomas, in Okinawa have relatively high HPV-16 positive rates and low HPV-18 positive rates comparing with mainland Japan.

Differences in methylation profiles between HPV-positive and HPV-negative oropharynx squamous cell carcinoma

“…These varying results may be due to geographical and ethnical differences among studied populations, variation in origin of studied material, as well as different detection methods. Epidemiological studies have demonstrated differences in HPV prevalence among countries, reaching over 90% of HPV-positive OPSCC in Scandinavian countries [52][53][54] Additionally, HPV has a greater association with the oropharynx than with other subsites of the head and neck region, such as the oral cavity or larynx. 15 Thirteen studies included for review studied a mixture of subsites in the head and neck region, including the oropharynx.…”

Assessment of Fine Needle Aspiration Specimen Adequacy for High-Risk HPV Detection and Genotyping in Oropharyngeal Squamous Cell Carcinoma

“…Most publications in the literature are based on HPV 16 detection in surgical pathology specimens and use HPV detection methods such as PCR and ISH [6,7,8,9,10]. …”

Human Papillomavirus in Non-Oropharyngeal Head and Neck Cancers: A Systematic Literature Review

“…Compared to oral carcinomas, a greater diversity of other HPV types has been detected: HPV18, HPV26, HPV31, HPV33, HPV39, HPV36, HPV45, HPV51, HPV52, HPV58, HPV59, HPV66, and HPV69 [8,9,14,20,26,29,39,65,71,90,94]. Low-risk HPV are uncommonly detected, and might represent incidental ''bystander'' rather than possibly ''driver'' infection [29,39,65,75,90,94].…”