Detection of HPV related oropharyngeal cancer in oral rinse specimens. Academic Article uri icon

Overview

abstract

  • Background: The majority of patients diagnosed with oropharyngeal squamous cell cancer (OPSCC) are due to HPV infection. At present, there are no reliable tests for screening HPV in patients with OPSCC. The objective of this study was to assess the Cobas® HPV Test on oral rinse specimens as an early, non-invasive tool for HPV-related OPSCC. Methods: Oral rinse specimens were collected from 187 patients (45 with OPSCC, 61 with oral cavity SCC (OCSCC) and 81 control patients who had benign or malignant thyroid nodules) treated at MSKCC. The Cobas® HPV Test was used to detect 14 high-risk HPV types in these samples. Performance of the HPV Test was correlated with p16 tumor immunohistochemistry as gold standard. Results: 91.1% of the oropharynx cancer patients had p16 positive tumors compared to 3.3% of oral cavity cancer. Of the 81 control patients, 79 (97.5%) had no HPV in their oral rinse giving a specificity of the HPV test of 98%. For the combined oral cavity oropharynx cancer cohort, the sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value and negative predictive value of the HPV Test were 79.1%, 90.5%, 85.0% and 86.4% respectively when p16 immunohistochemistry was used as the reference. Conclusion: The Cobas® HPV Test on oral rinse is a highly specific and potentially sensitive test for oropharyngeal cancer and may be a potentially useful screening test for early oropharyngeal cancer. Impact: We describe an oral rinse test for the detection of HPV related oropharyngeal cancer.

publication date

  • November 25, 2017

Identity

PubMed Central ID

  • PMC5752529

Scopus Document Identifier

  • 85037673538

Digital Object Identifier (DOI)

  • 10.18632/oncotarget.22682

PubMed ID

  • 29312616

Additional Document Info

volume

  • 8

issue

  • 65