Human papillomavirus detection in head and neck squamous cell carcinoma in Turkey.

Abstract

e17538 Background: Head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC) is the sixth most common type of cancer worldwide. In Turkey, 5538 new cases and 2340 deaths from head and neck cancer are estimated to occur every year. Tobacco and alcohol are the most important etiological risk factors but in the past three decads tobacco usage is decreased and Human Papilloma Virus (HPV) has changed HNSCC epidemiology. Many new reports suggests that almost 25% of all cases of HNSCC are related to HPV. But its prevelans shows a wide variation among different populations.Today in Turkey HPV positivity in HNSCC is currently not known and this retrospective study aimed to to evaluate the HPV infection in our HNSCC patients. Methods: We included 125 HNSCC patients diagnosed and treated in our hospital beween January 2010 and December 2016. Oral cavity, oropharyngeal, laryngeal and hypopharyngeal cancers were included. Nasopharyngeal and salivary gland cancers were exculuded. Head and neck cancer tissue samples fixed using 10% Neutral Buffered Formalin and embedded blocks were used. From an initial evaluation of 125 patients records 77 of the paients blocks could be adequate for the HPV testing. Detection and genotyping of HPV genotypes were done using a polymerase chain reaction (PCR) protocol. Results: PCR amplification was succesful in 61 of 77 patients. Among the 61 HNSCC patients only 3 patients were HPV positive(4.9 %). HPV 16 subtype was detected in one patient who was 70 years old male, stage III laryngeal cancer with a smoking history. The subtypes detected in other two patients were different from 16 and 18. One of these patients was 42 years old nonsmoker female stage IVa hypopharyngeal cancer and the other one was 56 years old smoker male with stage II oropharyngeal cancer. Conclusions: In Turkey, this is the first study that evaluated HPV positivity in HNSCC. Our results suggest a low prevelance of HPV in Turkish HNSCC patients; large scale population based studies are needed to confirm our findings.