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Is There Any Role of Arsenic Toxicity in HPV Related Oral Squamous Cell Carcinoma?

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Abstract

Arsenic is a potent human carcinogen affecting the rate of cancer deaths worldwide. In India, West Bengal is the worst affected state by arsenic. To our best knowledge, this is the first study relating arsenic toxicity with oral carcinoma, along with HPV infection, the latter being well established in western countries. To find out a possible correlation between arsenic toxicity and oral carcinoma in the population of West Bengal, in or without any association with human papilloma virus infection. Ethical clearance of this study was obtained from the institutional committee. One hundred and four malignant and 103 premalignant cases were selected for this study along with 200 healthy age and sex-matched individuals selected as control (100 each for malignant and premalignant) (2013–2017). On proper consent, their buccal swab and hair samples were assessed for the presence of HPV DNA by DNA extraction, followed by PCR and arsenic estimation by flow injection hydride generation atomic absorption spectrometry respectively. A very highly significant correlation has been observed between arsenic toxicity, HPV infection and the occurrence of oral carcinoma (p value = 2.18e−06; p value = 0.00100 respectively). A correlation has also been observed between these two factors simultaneously, contributing to this malignancy (phi coefficient = 0.2194839). A statistically significant correlation observed between this metal toxicity and viral infection in the occurrence of oral carcinoma in this population indicates a possible symbiotic role between these two factors in this malignancy.

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Acknowledgements

We are grateful to Swami Nityakamananda, Secretary of Ramakrishna Mission Seva Pratishthan, for kindly allowing us to conduct the study in this institution.

Funding

We are indebted to DST Inspire Fellowship, New Delhi for giving the financial assistance required for this study.

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  1. Department of Genetics, Vivekananda Institute of Medical Sciences, Ramakrishna Mission Seva Pratishthan, 99 Sarat Bose Road, Kolkata, 700026, India

    Pritha Pal & Ajanta Halder

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  1. Pritha Pal
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Correspondence to Ajanta Halder.

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All procedures performed in this study involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional committee and with the 1964 Helsinki Declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.

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Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.

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Pal, P., Halder, A. Is There Any Role of Arsenic Toxicity in HPV Related Oral Squamous Cell Carcinoma?. Biol Trace Elem Res 188, 274–283 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12011-018-1419-6

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