Characterization of high risk human papilloma virus genotypes associated with oropharyngeal cancers in a Nigerian population.

Introduction: head and neck cancers have essentially been a disease of the elderly but recent studies are beginning to demonstrate their increasing incidence in young people with infections such as human papilloma virus (HPV). This study was carried out to determine the prevalence of high risk Human papilloma virus (hrHPV) related oropharyngeal carcinoma and its prevalent genotypes as well as their strength of association with HIV in adult Nigerian subjects.

Methods: this was a cross-sectional study of 41 patients with oropharyngeal carcinomas seen over a 2-year period. Patients had incisional and/or excisional biopsy done under anesthesia. A portion of the specimen from which the DNA was extracted was placed in Digene HC2 DNA collection device while the 2 portion for histopathological analysis was fixed using 10% Neutral Buffered Formalin (NBF) and embedded in paraffin blocks. Oropharyngeal cancer HPV genotyping was done using HPV genotypes 14 real-tm quant kit (SACACE, Italy). The data was analyzed using SPSS version 23.

Results: prevalence of HPV was 17.1% with a male to female ratio of 2.7: 1. The identified genotypes were 16, 33, 35 and 52 with 28.6% of patients having more than one genotype. Most of the age groups studied were affected. Squamous cell carcinoma and ameloblastic carcinoma were the cancers associated with HPV. HPV was not identified in the HIV positive patients.

Conclusion: high-risk human papilloma virus genotypes 16, 33, 35 and 52 are associated with oropharyngeal carcinoma in Nigeria but were not found in HIV patients. This finding provides a strong evidence for the use of the 9-valent prophylactic vaccine for the prevention of oropharyngeal cancer in Nigeria. Public awareness and HPV prevention strategies should reduce significantly the incidence of oropharyngeal carcinomas in our environment.