Recurrent anal squamous carcinoma: Is HPV a risk factor?

Abstract

e15094 Background: Anal squamous carcinoma (ASC) is a rare cancer, representing only 1.5 to 2% of all gastrointestinal (GI) malignancies. Combined chemo-radiotherapy therapy (CRT) is the treatment of choice with a response rate of 80% and recurrence rate of 10 to 15%. HPV is a risk factor for anal cancer but its role in cancer recurrence is less clear. We conducted a retrospective study to analyze clinical outcome of ASC patients in function of their HPV status. Methods: Patients with non-metastatic ASC treated between 2005-2011 at the Centre Hospitalier de l’Université de Montréal were eligible. Patient characteristics, clinical outcomes, and tumoral HPV status were retrospectively identified. Results: Seventy patients (M:31; F:39) were included in the analysis. The median age of patients was 51 years. Patient and tumor characteristics are shown in the Table. CRT was done in 57 patients. Median follow-up was 37.6 months. Eleven patients had recurrence of whom 10 were HPV-positive. Median TTR was 13.2 months. The 3 deaths related to cancer occurred during the first year of diagnosis. The 3 year overall survival was 90.08%. In multivariate analysis neither the advanced stage of disease nor the HPV-positive status had a statistically significant impact on relapse. Conclusions: In this small cohort, we found a high prevalence of HPV positivity in ASC but HPV infection couldn’t be identified as a risk factor for ASC relapse. Inclusion of men in the HPV vaccination program may help in reducing HPV related ASC. [Table: see text]