Prevalence of high-risk human papillomavirus in oral squamous cell carcinoma with or without chewing habits

• Published in: PloS one 2024-05, Vol.19 (5), p.e0300354
• Main Authors: Anwar, Namrah, Chundriger, Qurratulain, Awan, Sohail, Moatter, Tariq, Ali, Tazeen Saeed, Abdul Rasheed, Maria, Pervez, Shahid
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Adult; Aged; Antibodies; Biology and Life Sciences; Biopsy; Cancer; Carcinoma, Squamous Cell - epidemiology; Carcinoma, Squamous Cell - virology; Care and treatment; Cell cycle; Cervical cancer; Chewing; Complications and side effects; Cyclin-Dependent Kinase Inhibitor p16 - metabolism; Development and progression; DNA polymerase; Ethanol; Female; Genes; Habits; Health aspects; Human papillomavirus; Human papillomavirus 16 - genetics; Human papillomavirus 16 - isolation & purification; Human papillomavirus 18 - genetics; Human papillomavirus 18 - isolation & purification; Human Papillomavirus Viruses; Humans; Male; Males; Mastication; Medicine and Health Sciences; Middle Aged; Mouth cancer; Mouth Neoplasms - epidemiology; Mouth Neoplasms - virology; Oral cancer; Oral carcinoma; Oral squamous cell carcinoma; p16 Protein; Pakistan - epidemiology; Papillomavirus infections; Papillomavirus Infections - epidemiology; Papillomavirus Infections - virology; Papillomaviruses; Prevalence; Prevention; Proteins; Research and Analysis Methods; Risk Factors; Samples; Social Sciences; Squamous cell carcinoma; Statistical analysis; Statistical tests; Tumors
• ISSN: 1932-6203; 1932-6203
• DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0300354

Oral cancer (OC) is the most common cancer in Pakistani males and the second most common in females. Major risk factors include peculiar chewing habits, human papillomavirus (HPV) infection and molecular pathways. However, less data is available for this avertible cancer regarding its association with high-risk HPV (HR-HPV) and chewing habits in this region. Therefore, this study was done to determine the prevalence of HR-HPV in oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) and its correlation with p16 and chewing habits. Formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded (FFPE) biopsy specimens of 186 samples were tested for HR-HPV type 16/18 by PCR, followed by p16 immunostaining (IHC) in a subset of cases (n = 50). Appropriate statistical tests were applied to find the association between HR-HPV/p16 and peculiar chewing habits with significance criteria of p0.05). It was concluded that HR-HPV prevalence in OSCC was very low in our population, with no statistically significant correlation with p16 and chewing habits. These results suggest the role of HR-HPV as an independent risk factor in OSCC in the local setting.