Associação da positividade de HPV e proteína P16 em amostras de carcinoma de células escamosas de cabeça e pescoço

Abstract

INTRODUCTION: Squamous cell carcinomas (SCC) of the oral cavity and oropharynx have been widely studied in regards to their carcinogenesis. In this context, recent research has shown an increasing incidence of the HPV infection in such tumors, which suggests the etiological role of the virus in inducing these neoplasms. OBJECTIVE: To determine the sociodemographic and clinical-pathological profile of patients with SCC of the oral cavity and oropharynx and to assess the association between the presence of Human Papillomavirus (HPV) and the p16 protein expression tumoural samples. METHODS: Cross-sectional study, of which SCC cases of oral cavity and oropharynx were analyzed upon which the diagnosis had occurred between the years of 2010 to 2016 and whose anatomopathological examination was performed at Hospital São Vicente de Paulo (HSVP), in Passo Fundo RS. Demographic data were obtained from patients' medical records, while clinicopathological characteristics were collected from the anatomopathological description. The tumoural samples were evaluated for the expression of the p16 protein by immunohistochemistry and for the presence of DNA-HPV by the Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) technique. The chi-square test was used to assess the association between protein expression, infection and the studied variables, and the significance level adopted was 5%. RESULTS: During the studied period, 42 cases of SCC were identified. Most patients were male (73.8%), mean age of 58 years, white skin color (90.5%), smoker (76.1%) and/or alcoholic (64%). Of the total, p16 overexpression was obtained for seven cases and the DNA-HPV was detected in three samples. There was no statistical significant association between these variables. CONCLUSION: 7 cases presented p16 protein overexpression, and regarding the positive detection of HPV-DNA, 3 cases were positive. These two groups share similarities: younger profile, tumor with advanced staging and lesions located mainly in the oropharynx. Only one case obtained the coexistence of overexpression and detection of HPV-DNA, while two other cases obtained overexpression with no HPV-DNA and no history of smoking. This last situation can be explained by the lack of genetic material for analysis of the presence of the viral genome.