PREVALENCE OF HPV POSITIVE OROPHARYNGEAL TUMORS IN PATIENTS TREATED AT THE HOSPITAL DE CANCER DE BARRETOS

Head and neck cancer is the eighth most common neoplasm in the world, and the oropharynx site is one of the most affected. The main risk factors for the development of the disease are smoking and alcohol consumption. Recently, an increase has been observed in the number of cases related to human papillomavirus infection in different regions of the world. Objective: To evaluate the prevalence of oropharyngeal cancer cases positive for HPV in patients treated at the Hospital de Cancer de Barretos. Methodology: HPV infection status is being evaluated in all patients diagnosed with squamous cell carcinoma of the oropharynx in a 10-year period by immunohistochemistry for p16. Results: Of the 1,425 cases raised from the Cancer Hospital Registry, 861 met the inclusion criteria. The IHQ-p16 test was already performed and analyzed for 641 of these cases and a prevalence of p16 expression positive cases was observed in 149 patients (23.2%). Analyzes of association between clinical, demographic and HPV status showed a higher prevalence of HPV positive oropharyngeal tumors in men (78.5%). However, the proportion of HPV positive tumors among women was higher than in men (42.3% in women versus 20.6% in men, p = < 0.0001). In relation to the age group, we observed that patients with HPV positive oropharyngeal tumors are younger, being most of them between the third and fourth decade of life, while the negative ones were more common in the fifth decade of life (p = 0.04). Regarding education, the majority of patients with higher education are positive for HPV, whereas among the negative ones, most had only middle school concluded (p = < 0.0001). Conclusion: The prevalence of oropharyngeal tumors associated with HPV appears to be increasing over the years.Regarding the association of sociodemographic data, the female gender seems to have a higher prevalence of HPV and in relation to age group the HPV positive patients appear to be younger.

 

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No conflict of interest has been declared by the author(s).

Publication History

Article published online:
23 October 2019