Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2022 May;42(5):2405-2413.
doi: 10.21873/anticanres.15719.

The Prognostic Significance of p16 and its Role as a Surrogate Marker for Human Papilloma Virus in Oral Squamous Cell Carcinoma: An Analysis of 281 Cases

Christian Doll  1 , Claudius Steffen  2 , Benedicta Beck-Broichsitter  2   3 , Maximilian Richter  2 , Konrad Neumann  4 , Anne Pohrt  4 , Philipp Lohneis  5 , Annika Lehmann  6 , Max Heiland  2 , Carmen Stromberger  7 , Annekatrin Coordes  8 , Korinna Johrens #  9 , Jan-Dirk Raguse #  10
Affiliations

The Prognostic Significance of p16 and its Role as a Surrogate Marker for Human Papilloma Virus in Oral Squamous Cell Carcinoma: An Analysis of 281 Cases

Christian Doll et al. Anticancer Res. 2022 May.

Abstract

Background/aim: This study analyzed the expression of p16 in a large cohort of patients suffering from oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) who received initial surgical therapy in order to evaluate the prognostic significance of p16 expression and to analyze its value as a surrogate marker to determine human papilloma virus (HPV) status.

Materials and methods: Immunohistochemical staining of p16 was performed on tissue microarrays. Different expression levels of p16 (>25%; >50%; ≥70%) with a moderate to strong intensity were correlated with the clinical outcome. HPV DNA was analyzed by polymerase chain reaction (PCR).

Results: A total of 281 patients were included in this study. The p16 expression obtained using the abovementioned three different cutoffs did not significantly influence 5-year overall survival (OS) (p=0.23; p=0.45; p=0.23) nor recurrence-free survival (RFS) (p=0.79; p=0.45; p=0.142). In univariate Cox regression analysis, the p16 expression level was not a risk factor for OS (HR=0.637; 95%CI=0.271-1.5; p=0.300) and RFS (HR=0.74; 95%CI=0.339-1.61; p=0.449). A total of 17 patients (6.0%) were p16 positive with a cutoff ≥70%. HPV DNA was found in 4/11 of these cases by PCR, resulting in a positive predictive value of 0.36. In patients receiving adjuvant radio(chemo)therapy, a significantly (p=0.042) longer OS was observed in patients with p16 expression greater than 25% vs. ≤25%.

Conclusion: In comparison with OPSCC, (strong) p16 positivity is rare in OSCC; however, in patients receiving primary surgery with adjuvant radio(chemo)therapy, p16 expression is associated with a higher survival rate. In conjunction with prior studies, p16 does not seem to be a reliable surrogate marker for HPV infection in OSCC.

Keywords: HPV; Oral squamous cell carcinoma; adjuvant therapy; p16; prognostic factors.

PubMed Disclaimer

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

See all "Cited by" articles

MeSH terms

Substances

LinkOut - more resources

-