Context: The high risk HPV 16 and 18 are known to be associated with some cancers of UADT, particularly oropharynx. These are more commonly seen in young patients, predominantly in male without known risk factors like smoking and alcoholism. Clinically they present with small or occult primary tumor with advanced neck disease. These patients are sensitive to radiotherapy and have better prognosis than conventional keratinizing SCC. The p16 is a surrogate marker for detection HPV.
Aims: To detect the frequency of p16 positivity in UADT cancer and correlate p16 positivity with the clinical presentation, histological type and grade of UADT cancers.
Methods and Material: Observational study conducted from January 2016 to June 2017 on all the newly diagnosed cases of primary UADT cancer confirmed by histopathological examination. Tissue biopsies were processed, 5 micron sections were stained with H and E and 3 micron sections were subjected for p16 IHC. The collected data was entered in Excel sheet and analyzed using Microsoft Excel software for percentages and proportions.
Results: The UADT cancer study subjects showed 37.2% positivity for p16. They were in the age group of 41 to 50 years, most of them were male. Majority of p16 positive UADT cancer study subjects were non smokers, non alcoholics and were not chewing betel nuts. Common site of involvement is oropharynx.
Conclusions: Analysis of our result with review of literature showed significant comparable p16 positivity with oropharyngeal cancers. The p16 immunohistochemistry is a surrogate marker for detection of HPV.
