Low prevalence of human papillomavirus in head and neck squamous cell carcinoma in Chinese patients.

The aim of this study was to ascertain the prevalence and prognostic value of human papillomavirus (HPV) infection status in head and neck squamous cell carcinoma. Immunohistochemistry and GenoArray HPV genotyping assays were used to evaluate the HPV infection status of 256 Chinese patients with head and neck squamous cell carcinoma. Long-term survival rates were calculated using the Kaplan-Meier method. Immunostaining for p16 was prevalent in 6.6% (17/256) of patients, whereas HPV infection was detected in 9 of 256 (3.5%) patients using the HPV genotyping test. None of the p16-negative subjects were found to have HPV infection according to the HPV genotyping test. P16 positivity was more common among nonsmokers than smokers (16.3% vs. 4.7%, respectively; P = 0.02). Among nine HPV-positive cases, seven were infected with HPV-16, one with HPV-33, and one with both HPV-16 and HPV-11. The 3-year overall survival rate was 87.5% for p16-positive/HPV-positive patients, 75.0% for p16-positive/HPV-negative patients, and 76.9% for p16-negative/HPV-negative patients (P = 0.30). A very low rate of HPV infection was found among the study patients. HPV infection status may not be a useful prognostic marker for head and neck cancer patients.