Multiple HPV subtypes infection in Japanese oral squamous cell carcinoma

Abstract

Human papillomavirus (HPV) infection may be independent risk factor for oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC). Many previous studies have also demonstrated the prevalence of HPVs in oral epithelial tissue. However, the relationship of HPV to OSCC is still controversy. The aim of this study was to determine the prevalence of HPV and subtypes in OSCC patients.DNA samples were collected from 93 OSCC tissues. We assessed prevalence of HPV and subtypes involvement in OSCC patients using the Roche Linear Array HPV Genotyping Test. Distribution of each clinical characteristic was compared with HPV status.HPV infection was found in 10 OSCC patients (10.7%). We detected multiple subtypes including high and low risk type in all HPV positive OSCC tissue samples. However, there was no significant correlation between HPV infection and all clinical characteristics.In this study, all HPV positive OSCC samples have more than 2 HPV subtypes. Although it was not reported that infection of multiple subtypes was a risk factor in OSCC, our results suggested that multiple subtypes infection of HPV might be participating in OSCC.