HPV detection using "hot start" polymerase chain reaction in patients with oral cancer: a clinicopathological study of 64 patients

Abstract

We examined the incidence of human papillomavirus (HPV) in intraoral cancers from 64 patients as determined by the highly sensitive technique of "hot start" polymerase chain reaction (PCR) in formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded tissues. Polymerase-chain-reaction-amplified HPV DNA was detected in the carcinomas of 16 patients (25%). The percentage of men in the HPV-positive (HPV+) group was greater than that in the HPV-negative (HPV-) group (86% versus 68%), but the difference was not statistically significant. There was no intraoral site preference for the HPV+ tumors. The mean age of viral-positive and -negative groups was similar (55 versus 53.8 yr). Three of 16 HPV+ patients (19%) had never smoked cigarettes; however, 16% of the HPV- group had also never smoked. Of interest, 38% of patients interviewed had occupation-related exposures that may have contributed to their carcinogenesis, and a disproportionate percentage of these patients (57%) were from the HPV+ group. There were no statistically significant differences between HPV+ and HPV- cases regarding T stage, clinical stage, and tumor differentiation. The disease-free interval did not differ significantly for HPV+ and HPV- patients in total nor when patients were stratified for tumor stage and clinical stage. The only group that showed some difference in outcome was that of the stage III/IV patients with oral cancer. We observed a shorter survival time for the HPV+ patients as compared with the HPV- patients (P = 0.09). We conclude that, in general, HPV is associated with a minority of intraoral cancers and its presence is not predictive of patient outcome.