Investigation of the presence of HPV related oropharyngeal and oral tongue squamous cell carcinoma in Mozambique.

•Cervical cancer caused by HPV genotypes 16 and 18 is endemic in Mozambique.•HPV-16 and 18 have caused a rapid rise in oropharyngeal cancers in the US and EU.•There is scant data evaluating the presence of these HPV related cancers in Africa.•We sought to investigate the presence of HPV related OP cancer in Mozambique.•We did not identify any HPV related OP cancers by IHC for p16 or PCR for HPV-16.