Association between proliferative verrucous leukoplakia and infection with human papillomavirus type 16 |
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| Authors: | Joel M Palefsky Sol Silverman Jr Maha Abdel-Salaam Troy E Daniels John S Greenspan |
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| Institution: | Department of Stomatology, School of Dentistry, University of California San Francisco, USA;Department of Laboratory Medicine, School of Medicine, University of California San Francisco, USA |
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| Abstract: | Proliferative verrucous leukoplakia (PVL) is a recently described clinical entity characterized by multifocal oral lesions that frequently progress to oral cancer despite abstinence from tobacco use by most patients. To determine if this condition is associated with human papillomavirus (HPV), a polymerase chain reaction (PCR) for HPV DNA was performed on 9 lesions from 7 patients with PVL, histologically diagnosed with focal keratosis (1), papilloma (1), epithelial dysplasia (5) and squamous cell cancer (2). Eight (89%) were HPV positive, 7 for HPV 16. For comparison, we studied 55 non-PVL-associated oral specimens, including 24 oral squamous cell cancers. Of the cancers, 8 (33%) were HPV positive, 4 for HPV 16. These data suggest that HPV 16 infection may play an important role in the pathogenesis of PVL-associated oral dysplasia and possibly cancer, but is found in only a small proportion of the more common, non-PVL associated-oral lesions. |
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| Keywords: | HPV 16 human papillomavirus oral cancer oral dysplasia papilloma proliferative verrucous leukoplakia squamous cell cancer |
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