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Comparison of HPV prevalence in HNSCC patients with regard to regional and socioeconomic factors

  • Head and Neck
  • Published:
European Archives of Oto-Rhino-Laryngology Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

HPV infection is considered as an independent risk factor for head and neck squamous cell carcinomas (HNSCC). Due to highly variable prevalence results in numerous studies, it is, however, difficult to estimate the relevance of HPV infection as risk factor for a specific patient collective. This study aimed to elucidate the disparities of HPV prevalence by analyzing socioeconomically and regionally different patient collectives. Two age, gender, stage and tumor location matched cohorts of 18 private health insured (PHIP) and 16 statutory health insured patients (SIP) suffering from an oropharyngeal squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) and treated at a university hospital were screened for p16 overexpression and HPV infection by immunohistochemistry and PCR. In addition 85 HNSCC patients of an otolaryngology private practice (PPP) in a rural area were screened for p16 overexpression and positive cases were tested for HPV infection. HPV prevalence was 72.2 % in the PHIP collective in comparison to 25.0 % (p = 0.015) in the SIP collective with a significantly improved 5-year overall survival (p = 0.003) of the PHIP collective. The total HPV prevalence of PPP group was 7.1 % with the highest infection rate in tonsillar carcinomas (33.3 %) and a larger percentage of female patients in the HPV positive group (p = 0.037). This study shows that variable HPV infection rates in HNSCC can be caused by the selection of particular patient collectives, which suggest taking socioeconomic and regional factors into account for a decision on HPV testing, if it is not performed on a routine basis.

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None of the authors has any conflict of interest for the publication of the manuscript.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Pathology, University of Regensburg, Franz-Josef-Strauss-Allee 11, 93053, Regensburg, Germany

    Rosemarie Krupar, Wolfgang Dietmaier & Ferdinand Hofstaedter

  2. Medical Practice for Otorhinolaryngology, Cham, Germany

    Michael Hartl

  3. Department of Otorhinolaryngology, University Hospital Regensburg, Regensburg, Germany

    Kornelia Wirsching & Juergen Strutz

Authors
  1. Rosemarie Krupar
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  2. Michael Hartl
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  3. Kornelia Wirsching
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  4. Wolfgang Dietmaier
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Correspondence to Rosemarie Krupar.

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Krupar, R., Hartl, M., Wirsching, K. et al. Comparison of HPV prevalence in HNSCC patients with regard to regional and socioeconomic factors. Eur Arch Otorhinolaryngol 271, 1737–1745 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00405-013-2693-8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00405-013-2693-8

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