Absence of human papilomavirus (HPV) in tissues samples of lung adenocarcinoma regardless of mutations in epidermal grown factor receptor or response to erlotinib: Data from the University Hospital Arnau de Vilanova of Lleida, Spain.

Abstract

e21124 Background: Not all non-small cell lung cancers (NSCLC) are related with smoke exposure. The relationship between human DNA papillomavirus (HPV) and the development of NSCLC is discussed since 1979. Literature reports a 10-20% rate of HPV infection in NSCLC samples, but it percentage widely ranges from 0’2 to 80% according several variables. 1) Cytology or sputum samples from NSCLC generally yield a poorer rate of HPV detection than tissue biopsies of the same population (2’8 vs. 20%); 2) The rate of HPV infection is considerably lower in Occident than in Oriental countries (10 vs. 35’7%); and 3) HPV infection seems to be more frequent in specific NSCLC subtypes. Oriental nonsmoker women with lung adenocarcinoma, the same population that exhibit a higher incidence of activating mutations of the epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR), present a higher rate of infection. In this sense, a recent publication reports that HPV infection is more common in samples from lung adenocarcinomas that respond to gefitinib, a drug that only works in presence of EGFR mutations. Anyway, a direct relationship between HPV infection and mutations of EGFR has not been explored yet in NSCLC. Methods: We analyzed 43 formalin-fixed, paraffin-embedded samples of NSCLC. Genomic DNA was isolated with the DNA easy tissue kit (Qiagen GMBH, Hilden, Germany), andlinear array HPV genotyping test (Roche, Switzerland) was used to amplify HPV DNA from 37 genotypes including 13 high risk HPV genotypes. This test amplifies target DNA by PCR and nucleic acid hybridization. Differences according, smoke habit, gender, response to erlotinib and presence of mutations of EGFR mutations were evaluated. Results: Samples from 22 male and 21 female patients were analyzed. Eleven of them exhibit mutations of EGFR, and 24 of them received erlotinib in their treatments. DNA of VPH was detected in one patient only. Conclusions: No relationship between HPV infection and NSCLC can be confirmed in our data. Gender, smoke exposition, histology, presence of EGFR mutation or response to erlotinib did not influence the rate of HPV detection.