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Updated: Aug 10, 2025
Chromogenic In Situ Hybridization as a Tool for HPV-Related Head and Neck Cancer Diagnosis
Published on: June 14, 2019
Circulating HPV16 DNA in Blood Plasma as Prognosticator and Early Indicator of Cancer Recurrence in
Agnieszka M Mazurek1, Ewa Małusecka1, Iwona Jabłońska1
1Center for Translational Research and Molecular Biology of Cancer, Maria Sklodowska-Curie National Research Institute of Oncology Gliwice Branch, Wybrzeze Armii Krajowej 15, 44-102 Gliwice, Poland.
Background:
Implementation of anal squamous cell carcinoma (ASCC) treatment modifications requires reliable patient risk stratification. The circulating tumor-related human papillomavirus type 16 (ctHPV16) may play a role in predicting survival or assessing treatment response.
Methods:
The study included 62 ASCC patients treated with chemoradiotherapy. A threshold of 2.5 was used to determine the maximum standardized uptake value (SUVmax). The ctHPV16 viral load (VL) was quantified by qPCR.
Results:
In the multivariate Cox analysis, lower SUVmax (p = 0.047) and ctHPV16-positive (p = 0.054) proved to be independent prognostic factors for favorable overall survival (OS). In the subgroup with the higher SUVmax, ctHPV16 and nodal (N) status were independent prognostic factors with p = 0.022 for ctHPV16 and p = 0.053 for N. The best survival rate (95%) presented ctHPV16-positive/N-negative patients. High ctHPV16 VL tended to be slightly specific for patients younger than 63 years (p = 0.152). The decrease in ctHPV16 VL to undetectable level after the end of treatment correlated with the overall clinical response.
Conclusions:
A prognostic stratification by SUVmax, ctHPV16 and N-positive status allows consideration of more aggressive treatment in high-risk patients (those with high SUVmax, ctHPV16-negative, and N-positive) or de-intensification of therapy in low-risk patients (those with low SUVmax, ctHPV16-positive and N-negative). However, prospective clinical trials on a large group are needed.
