Role of human papillomavirus in the clinical and histopathologic features of laryngeal and hypopharyngeal cancers.

Objective: In this study, we aimed to evaluate the role of human papillomavirus (HPV) in the clinical and histopathologic features of laryngeal and hypopharyngeal cancers.

Method: Paraffin wax-embedded sections consisting of 89 laryngeal and hypopharyngeal cancers from 210 patients were analyzed. Tissue samples were amplified by using a glucose 6-phosphatase dehydrogenase (G6PDH) control kit (Eurogentec, Seraing, Belgium), and G6PDH-positive samples were thought to have appropriate tissues by using a deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) extraction kit (DNA mini kit, Qiagen, Germany). HPV and HPV-16 were detected by real-time polymerase chain reaction (PCR) using the L1 region. Real-time nested amplifications of MY09/11 products were done by GP5+/GP6+ primers and a cyanine-5-labeled HPV-16 DNA-specific probe. HPV-16-negative MY09/11 amplicons were sequenced by an OpenGene automated DNA sequencing system, and a similar percentage of sequences was calculated by GeneObjects software (Visible Genetics, Canada).

Results: Specimens from 89 subjects fitting the criteria were taken for PCR assay, and the HPV genome was analyzed in 65 cases because the remaining cases did not have enough tissue according to G6PDH amplification. HPV was positive in 27 cases (41.5%). HPV positivity was found to be associated with lymph node metastasis (LNM). Odds ratio analysis indicated that HPV positivity was an important factor for LNM but not for other parameters.

Conclusions: HPV-16 infection can be associated with laryngeal carcinomas without LNM. Analysis of HPV positivity could be used as a prognostic factor.