Human Papilloma Virus in Head and Neck Squamous Cell Cancer

Background: Epidemiologic and molecular evidences have established a stronglink between high risk types of Human Papilloma Virus and a subgroup of Headand Neck Squamous Cell Carcinomas (HNSCC). We evaluated the frequency ofHPV positivity in HNSCC and its relationship to demographic and some risk factorvariables in an open case- control study.Methods: Fourteen recently diagnosed patients with squamous cell cancer oforopharynx, hypopharynx and larynx aged 18-50 years were examined from2008-2010 in Tabriz, Iran. HPV DNA was extracted from paraffin-embeddedblocks of each patient's sample for PCR evaluation. Saliva samples of 94 controlcancer-free subjects were collected for DNA analysis. Multivariable logisticregression method was used to calculate odds ratio for case-control comparisons.Results: High risk HPV was detected in 6(42.8%) patients, and 6(5.3%) controlsubjects which was statistically significant (p<0.0001). HPV-18 was the mostfrequent type both in the cases and controls. HPV-16 DNA was detected in twopatients of the case group, but it was not detected in any of the controls. Therelation between demographic and risk factor variables was not statisticallysignificant.Conclusion: HPV infection has a significant impact on HNSCC. Despite HPV-16stronger impact, HPV-18 is more likely to cause malignant degeneration in suchcancers amongst some communities. It is vital to introduce and conduct immunizationschedules in health care systems to protect communities to some extent.