Abstract
BackgroundHuman papillomavirus-associated oropharyngeal carcinoma (HPV-OPC) is clinicopathologically distinct entity from the HPV-unassociated one (nHPV-OPC). This study aimed to determine the relationship between histological subtypes of OPC and HPV status for Japanese cases and to identify histological structures of HPV-OPC.Methods66 OPC cases were categorized into conventional squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) and the variants. Conventional SCC was subcategorized into keratinizing (KSCC), non-keratinizing (NKSCC), and hybrid SCC (HSCC). HPV status of all cases was determined using p16-immunohistochemistry and HPV-DNA ISH.ResultsTwo histological subtypes, NKSCC and HSCC, tended to be HPV-OPC and KSCC tended to be nHPV-OPC with statistical significance. Two histological structures, abrupt keratinization, defined in the text, and comedo-necrosis among non-maturing tumor island, were observed for 58.1% and 38.7% of HPV-OPC, and tended to exist for HPV-OPC with statistical significance.ConclusionsThis study showed the association of NKSCC/HSCC with HPV-OPC in Japanese cases, and two histological structures, abrupt keratinization and comedo-necrosis among non-maturing island, were considered characteristic histological features of HPV-OPC.Virtual slidesThe virtual slide(s) for this article can be found here: http://www.diagnosticpathology.diagnomx.eu/vs/1816432541113073.
Highlights
Human papillomavirus-associated oropharyngeal carcinoma (HPV-OPC) is clinicopathologically distinct entity from the HPV-unassociated one
Chernock et al reported that non-keratinizing squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) (NKSCC) and hybrid SCC (HSCC) were more likely to be HPV-positive than keratinizing SCC (KSCC) [9,10]
Since two histopathological features, (i) ‘abrupt keratinization’ and (ii) ‘comedo-necrosis among non-maturing tumor island’, were often seen in our OPC cases, but were usually not observed in our daily pathological practice for squamous cell carcinoma of any other organ/ tissue, we carefully evaluated the existence of these two histological structures
Summary
Human papillomavirus-associated oropharyngeal carcinoma (HPV-OPC) is clinicopathologically distinct entity from the HPV-unassociated one (nHPV-OPC). Human papillomavirus (HPV)-associated oropharyngeal carcinoma (HPV-OPC) has been recognized as a distinct clinicopathologic entity of head and neck cancer [1]. HPV-OPC has been reported to be distinct from HPVunassociated oropharyngeal carcinoma (nHPV-OPC) on a molecular, epidemiological, and clinical basis [2,3]. There have been several papers on some histological subtypes/variants that are more likely to be HPV-associated [9,10,11,12,13,14,15]. In Japanese OPC cases, the impact of several risk factors other than HPV infection, such as tobacco/alcohol exposure, may be different from that in Western countries. It is important to see the tendency of histological subtypes of HPV-OPC in Japanese cases with the different background risk factors
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