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. 2021 Jul 9;13(7):1326.
doi: 10.3390/v13071326.

A Contemporary Systematic Review on Repartition of HPV-Positivity in Oropharyngeal Cancer Worldwide

Amanda F Carlander  1 , Kathrine K Jakobsen  1 , Simone K Bendtsen  1 , Martin Garset-Zamani  1 , Charlotte D Lynggaard  1 , Jakob Schmidt Jensen  1 , Christian Grønhøj  1 , Christian von Buchwald  1
Affiliations

A Contemporary Systematic Review on Repartition of HPV-Positivity in Oropharyngeal Cancer Worldwide

Amanda F Carlander et al. Viruses. .

Abstract

Significant variation in human papillomavirus (HPV) prevalence in oropharyngeal squamous cell carcinoma (OPSCC) across countries ranging from 11% in Brazil to 74% in New Zealand has been reported earlier. The aim of this study was to systematically review the most recently published studies on the occurrence of HPV in OPSCC globally. PubMed and Embase were systematically searched for articles assessing the occurrence of HPV+ OPSCC published between January 2016 and May 2021. Studies with a study period including 2015 and the following years were included. Both HPV DNA and/or p16 were accepted as indicators of HPV+ OPSCC. 31 studies were enrolled comprising 49,564 patients with OPSCC (range 12-42,024 patients per study) from 26 different countries covering all continents. The lowest occurrences of HPV+ OPSCC were observed in India (0%) and Spain (10%) and the highest occurrences were observed in Lebanon (85%) and Sweden (70%). We observed great variation in HPV prevalence in OPSCC worldwide varying from 0% to 85%. The highest occurrences of HPV+ OPSCC were found in general in Northern European countries, USA, Lebanon, China, and South Korea. We observed a trend of increase in HPV-positivity, indicating a mounting burden of HPV+ OPSCC.

Keywords: HPV genotype; global; head and neck cancer; human papillomavirus; oropharyngeal cancer; oropharyngeal squamous cell carcinoma; prevalence; worldwide.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
PRISMA flow diagram of article selection.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Proportion meta-analysis of HPV+ OPSCC in enrolled studies. Occurrence of HPV+ OPSCC worldwide among patients with OPSCC. OPSCC: oropharyngeal squamous cell carcinoma. HPV +: human papillomavirus-positive.
Figure 3
Figure 3
HPV-positivity in patients with OPSCC over time worldwide. OPSCC: oropharyngeal squamous cell carcinoma. HPV: human papillomavirus.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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