HPV sequencing in Indian buccal mucosa cancer tumour tissues

Over 150 genotypes of Human Papillomavirus (HPV) are identified to date, which is a common virus spread by skin-to-skin contact, especially sexual activity. Common high-risk HPV subtypes (HR-HPV) like HPV 16 and HPV 18 are found to play a direct role in development of cervical cancers. Among head and neck cancers, these HR-HPV are also a well-known risk factor for oropharyngeal cancers (OPC). But their exact role in oral cavity cancers (OC) is not known. There exists several literature exploring the difference in survival rates of HPV-related OPCs versus non-HPV-related OPCs, and this is what was aimed at observing among the OC patients in our Indian population as well. A lot of non-HPV Sexually Transmitted Infections (STIs) are also found at the tumour sites of a lot of oral cancer patients, which was also aimed to be explored in this study. The prevalence of HPV specifically has shown to vary a lot over the years. But as per latest studies, among head and neck cancers, the prevalence ranged between 3-13%, with the lowest being among the OC patients.截至目前，已鉴定出超过150种人乳头瘤病毒（Human Papillomavirus，HPV）基因型，该病毒是一种经皮肤接触（尤其是性接触）传播的常见病毒。常见的高危型HPV亚型（high-risk HPV subtypes，HR-HPV）如HPV 16、HPV 18，被证实与宫颈癌的发生发展存在直接关联。在头颈部肿瘤中，此类高危型HPV亦是口咽癌（oropharyngeal cancers，OPC）的明确危险因素，但其在口腔癌（oral cavity cancers，OC）发生中的确切作用仍未明确。已有多项相关文献探讨了HPV相关与非HPV相关口咽癌的生存率差异，本研究同样旨在观察印度人群中口腔癌患者的此类差异。此外，大量口腔癌患者的肿瘤病灶中还检出了多种非HPV性传播感染（Sexually Transmitted Infections，STIs），这亦是本研究拟探索的内容之一。HPV的患病率多年来存在显著波动，但据最新研究显示，在头颈部肿瘤中，HPV患病率介于3%~13%之间，其中口腔癌患者的HPV患病率最低。