Treatment failure patterns are similar between p16-and p16+oropharyngeal squamous cell carcinomas

Background The incidence of p16+ oropharyngeal squamous cell carcinoma (OPSCC) has been increasing. The notion that p16+ OPSCC has a propensity for atypical and disseminating metastasis has gained traction. We compared treatment failure patterns in p16+ and p16- OPSCC and evaluated survival impact. Methods Retrospective analysis of patients with recurrent/metastatic OPSCC disease between 1/2009 and 12/2019. Results Thirty-eight p16+ and 36 p16- patients were identified. Three distinct failure patterns (distant vs. locoregional, atypical vs. typical, and disseminating vs. non-disseminating) were studied. No significant differences were found between p16+ and p16- patients. Multivariate analysis showed p16 status was an independent prognostic biomarker; p16+ patients have a favorable overall survival compared to p16- patients (HR 0.34, 95% CI 0.16-0.77; P = .005). Conclusions We challenge the view that p16+ OPSCC exhibits a distinctive treatment failure pattern and showed that p16 status impacts patient survival independent of disease progression.