Prognostic value of HPV status among patients with hypopharyngeal carcinoma: a population-based study

To clarify the prognostic role of human papilloma virus (HPV) status among patients with hypopharyngeal carcinoma.

Surveillance, Epidemiology and End Results (SEER) HPV head and neck cancer database has been accessed and cases with hypopharyngeal squamous cell carcinoma with known HPV status were retrieved. Kaplan-Meier survival estimates were used to evaluate the impact of HPV status on overall survival outcomes of included patients and multivariable cox regression analysis was used to assess the impact of HPV status on overall and head and neck cancer-specific survival.

A total of 1157 patients' records with hypopharyngeal carcinoma were included in the current analysis. Using Kaplan-Meier survival estimates, patients with HPV positive status seem to have better overall survival compared to patients with HPV negative status (P < 0.01). When stratified by stage, patients with HPV positive regional and distant disease have better overall survival compared to patients with HPV negative regional and distant disease (P < 0.01 for both categories). The same observation cannot be confirmed for patients with localized disease (P = 0.15). Using multivariable Cox regression analysis, HPV positive status seems to be associated with better overall survival (HR for HPV negative versus HPV positive status: 1.76; 95% CI 1.39-2.24; P < 0.01) and cancer-specific survival (HR for HPV negative versus HPV positive status: 1.54; 95% CI 1.12-2.11; P < 0.01).

Patients with HPV positive hypopharyngeal carcinoma seem to have better overall and cancer-specific survival compared to patients with HPV negative hypopharyngeal carcinoma.