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. 2017 May 30:5:e3395.
doi: 10.7717/peerj.3395. eCollection 2017.

Clinical impact of human papillomavirus in laryngeal squamous cell carcinoma: a retrospective study

Wei-Chih Chen  1   2 , Hui-Ching Chuang  1   2 , Yu-Tsai Lin  1   2 , Chao-Cheng Huang  2   3 , Chih-Yen Chien  1   2
Affiliations

Clinical impact of human papillomavirus in laryngeal squamous cell carcinoma: a retrospective study

Wei-Chih Chen et al. PeerJ. .

Abstract

Objectives: The purpose of this study is to determine the prevalence and clinical impact of human papillomavirus (HPV) related laryngeal squamous cell carcinoma (LSCC).

Methods: A total of 106 LSCC patients who underwent primary surgical resection with or without adjuvant radiotherapy/chemoradiotherapy were enrolled retrospectively. Tumors collected from paraffin-embedded samples were used for HPV detection by polymerase chain reaction and in situ hybridization technique. Clinicopathological parameters were recorded for analysis.

Results: The prevalence of HPV in patients with LSCC was 13.2% in our series and 12 out of 14 (85.7%) HPV-positive tumors were HPV-16. The patients with HPV-positive tumors were older (p = 0.042), less local/regional recurrence (p = 0.037) and non-smoker (p = 0.068). There was no significant difference in the 5-year overall survival (OS) (p = 0.8056) between HPV-positive and -negative tumors. The patients with HPV-positive tumors had a better 5-year disease-specific survival (DSS) (100% vs. 84.8%, p = 0.1485), although the difference did not reach statistical significance. However, the local/regional control rate was significantly better in HPV-positive tumors than in HPV-negative tumors (100% vs. 75%, p = 0.0494).

Conclusions: A low prevalence of HPV infection in our series suggests that HPV is not a major cause of LSCC. However, a 100% local/regional control rate and DSS were observed in HPV-positive tumors. This finding suggests a different tumor behavior between HPV-positive and HPV-negative LSCC. Further research with a larger sample size is necessary to confirm our observations.

Keywords: HPV; Laryngeal cancer; Prevalence; Recurrence; Survival.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare there are no competing interests.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1. The distributions of different HPV types.
The distributions of (A) various HPV types in laryngeal cancer and (B) HPV at different laryngeal subsites.
Figure 2
Figure 2. Clinical outcome in HPV-positive and HPV-negative tumors.
The effect of HPV status on (A) overall survival, (B) disease-specific survival, and (C) local/regional control rates.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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