Prevalence of human papillomavirus in archival head and neck cancer in the eastern Inner Mongolian Autonomous Region, China.

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the prevalence of human papillomavirus (HPV) in archival head and neck cancer (HNC) collected from the Tong-Liao area, which is located in east Inner Mongolia, China.

METHODS: The presence of HPV in 54 HNCs and 25 benign biopsies was detected and the sequence variation of the E6 gene in HPV-positive samples was analyzed to determine their lineage/sublineage classification.

RESULTS: HPV was detected in only 4 out of 54 HNCs and no benign biopsies were found to be HPV-positive. After further p16INK4a immunostaining, only 3 cases of HNC were positive for both HPV and p16INK4a . Phylogenetic analysis of the isolated E6 gene shows that the HPV 16, HPV 31, and HPV 58 isolated in this study belong to lineage A.

CONCLUSIONS: The prevalence of HPV in HNC from this area is very low. The lineage/sublineage classification of the 3 HPV types in HNC in this area is consistent with the previous reported data of HPV lineage distribution in cervical cancer within China.