Prognosis of HPV-Positive Oral Squamous Carcinoma: A Cohort Study from Japan

The incidence of human papillomavirus (HPV)-positive oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) is reportedly high-er in Asia than in Central/South America, Europe, and Africa. To date, there were many studies on HPV-positive oropharyn-geal SCC (OPSCC). However, little is known about the potential variations in the incidence, racial features, and clinical outcomes in patients with HPV-positive OSCC. Hence, the purpose of this study was to examine the prevalence of HPV subtypes in OSCC and to study the patient characteristics and outcomes in the Japanese population. This study was con-ducted between 2009 and 2013 at Aichi Cancer Center Hospital, Nagoya, Japan and included patients who were newly di-agnosed and histopathologically confirmed cases of OSCC. The study included 67 patients who met the inclusion criteria. All patients underwent definitive surgery, with or without chemotherapy. HPV subtypes in the biopsy samples were identi-fied by polymerase chain reaction (PCR). The clinical factors and survival outcomes in patients with HPV-positive and HPV-negative OSCC were compared. Cox regression analysis was performed to determine the prognostic factors associated with overall survival (OS). The prevalence of HPV-positive OSCC was 10.4% and was predominant in males. HPV 16, which was the most common subtype identified, was predominantly observed in males. The clinical factors and survival outcomes (OS) did not differ between patients with HPV-positive and HPV-negative OSCC. Since the prevalence of HPV-positive OSCC is very low compared to that of OPSCC, it was difficult to achieve adequate power for survival analy-sis. However, in the future, additional studies with large sample sizes should be conducted to study the effect of clinical fea-tures on the prognosis of patients with HPV-positive OSCC.