Survival of patients with head and neck squamous cell carcinoma in association with human papillomavirus and p53 polymorphism

Abstract

Survival of patients with head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC) is dependent on many factors — stage of the disease, treatment regimen, operation technique etc. Many authors discuss on association of survival with various biomarkers as HPV infection, p53 mutation and polymorphism or p16 expression. The objective of our study was to analyze the survival of HNSCC patients in association with HPV infection and p53 polymorphism.

Methods

39 patients with primary diagnosed HNSCC were investigated. HPV DNA was detected using PCR with general primers MY09/11; p53 polymorphism was analyzed using single nucleotide polymorphism assay by PCR.

Results

Of the 39 patients, 12 (30.8%) had detectable HPV. After p53 polymorphism analysis heterozygous Prol/Arg type was found in 34 cases (87.2%). Survival was higher in laryngeal cancer patients and in patients when tumour was classified as T_1–2. Somewhat higher survival was in the HPV positive patients, however difference was not statistically significant (P = 0.7). Only significant factor influencing survival in our study group was site of primary tumour (P < 0.05).

Conclusion

HNSCC patients’ survival in our study depend on primary tumour site; HPV infection and p53 SNP was not associated with better survival.