Human papillomavirus in recurrent respiratory papillomatosis, tonsillar and mobile tongue cancer

• Main Author: Loizou, Christos
• Format: Doctoral or Postdoctoral Thesis
• Language: English
• Published: Umeå universitet, Öron- näs- och halssjukdomar 2016
• Subjects: Human papillomavirus; recurrent respiratory papillomatosis tonsillar cancer; mobile tongue cancer; voice-; and quality of life; p16; syndecan-1; northern Sweden; Otorhinolaryngology; Oto-rino-laryngologi; Northern Sweden
• Online Access: http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:umu:diva-124792

This thesis focuses on the effects of the human papillomavirus (HPV) in tonsillar cancer, mobile tongue cancer, and recurrent respiratory papillomatosis (RRP). The purpose was to characterize patients with RRP in northern Sweden in order to identify more care-intensive RRP patients and to describe the voice and quality of life aspects that follow RRP. Further aims were to confirm the expected increase of HPV-positive tonsillar cancer cases in northern Sweden, and to study the correlation between HPV, its surrogate marker p16 and HPV receptor syndecan-1 in both tonsillar cancer and mobile tongue cancer. A total of 27 consecutive patients with RRP were evaluated at 3 months postoperatively using the voice handicap index (VHI) and SF-36 questionnaires to assess the impact on life and voice in a RRP population. The values were compared to normative data. This report was further extended by examining consecutive data from 21 new patients in order to characterize RRP patients in northern Sweden. In order to study HPV DNA in tonsillar (n= 65) and mobile tongue cancer (n=109), HPV DNA was extracted from paraffin-embedded biopsies and detected by polymerase chain reaction using general primers Gp5+/6+ and CpI/IIG. Expression of HPV surrogate marker p16 and the HPV receptor syndecan-1 was analysed by immunohistochemistry. Patients that underwent more than one RRP surgery per year were younger than those treated less frequently and they had significantly impaired voice quality as compared to normal subjects. Females, patients with frequent surgical treatment sessions, and patients with the high-risk HPV subtypes scored significantly lower in several domains of the quality of life assessment as compared with normal subjects. Forty-eight RRP patients had a median age of 44.5 years; 71% were men and 29% females, preferentially infected with HPV6. Patients with high surgical treatment frequency/year showed more widespread RRP in the larynx compared to the patients treated less frequently. A total of 214 tonsillar cancer cases ...