Human papillomavirus (HPV) and rising oropharyngeal cancer incidence and survival in the United States.

Abstract

5529 Background: Recent increases in incidence and survival of oropharyngeal cancers in the United States (U.S.) have been attributed to human papillomavirus (HPV) infection, but empirical evidence is lacking. Methods: HPV status was determined for 271 oropharyngeal cancer cases (1984-2004) collected by population-based cancer registries of the National Cancer Institute’s Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results program in Hawaii, Iowa, and Los Angeles. Tumor HPV status was determined by PCR and genotyping (Inno-LiPA), HPV16 viral load, HPV16 mRNA expression, and HPV16 in situ hybridization. Trends in HPV prevalence across four calendar periods were estimated using logistic regression. Survival of HPV-positive and HPV-negative cases was compared by Kaplan-Meier and multivariate Cox regression analyses. Results: HPV prevalence in oropharyngeal cancers significantly increased over calendar time regardless of HPV detection assay (p-trend<0.05). For example, HPV prevalence by Inno-LiPA increased more than ...