Comparative study between biopsy and brushing sampling methods for detection of human papillomavirus in oral and oropharyngeal cavity lesions

Marise Da Penha Costa Marques,Ivo Bussoloti Filho,Lia Mara Rossi,Maria Antonieta Andreoli,Natália Oliveira Cruz

doi:10.1016/j.bjorl.2015.08.007

Abstract

IntroductionMany epidemiological studies have suggested that human papillomavirus (HPV), especially type 16, is involved in the genesis of squamous cell carcinoma of the oral cavity and oropharynx, especially in young, non-smoking patients; thus, its detection in lesions in this region is important. ObjectiveTo clarify the capacity of the brushing sampling method to detect the presence of HPV in oral or oropharyngeal lesions through polymerase chain reaction (PCR) testing, and to compare the results with those obtained by biopsy. MethodsProspective study of adult patients with oral or oropharyngeal lesions assessed by PCR, comparing biopsy specimens with samples obtained by the brushing method. The study was approved by the Research Ethics Committee of the institution. ResultsA total of 35 sample pairs were analyzed, but 45.7% of the brushing samples were inadequate (16/35) and, thus, only 19 pairs could be compared. There was agreement of results in 94.7% (18/19) of the pairs, with HPV identified in 16 of them. HPV DNA was detected in 8.6% (3/35) of biopsy and 5.7% (2/35) of brushing samples. ConclusionThere was no statistically significant difference between the two methods, but the brushing sampling method showed a higher number of inadequate samples, suggesting that it is an unreliable method for surveillance.

Highlights

Many epidemiological studies have suggested that human papillomavirus (HPV), especially type 16, is involved in the genesis of squamous cell carcinoma of the oral cavity and oropharynx, especially in young, non-smoking patients; its detection in lesions in this region is important
Syrjänen et al (1983) were the first to suggest that human papillomavirus (HPV) could be involved in this carcinogenesis as it is in cervical carcinoma; since many studies have been performed to establish the prevalence of HPV in the mouth and oropharynx, both in patients with and without lesions.[1,2,5,6]
HPV detection methods in Squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) of the mouth and oropharynx show broad variations in sensitivity and specificity, with prevalence ranging between 0% and 78%; it is very important to choose a method that has high sensitivity and specificity for HPV detection

Summary

Introduction

Many epidemiological studies have suggested that human papillomavirus (HPV), especially type 16, is involved in the genesis of squamous cell carcinoma of the oral cavity and oropharynx, especially in young, non-smoking patients; its detection in lesions in this region is important. Syrjänen et al (1983) were the first to suggest that human papillomavirus (HPV) could be involved in this carcinogenesis as it is in cervical carcinoma; since many studies have been performed to establish the prevalence of HPV in the mouth and oropharynx, both in patients with and without lesions.[1,2,5,6]. For these reasons, it appears important to establish an affordable and reliable surveillance method for clinical or subclinical infection with high-risk HPV in oral and oropharyngeal mucosa for head and neck SCC prevention. There are many factors that can affect viral detection, such as lesion location, presence or absence of keratinization, type of sample collected, and collection procedure (how the sample was collected, preserved, and extracted), in addition to the methods used in detection.2,7---9

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