Human Papillomavirus in Saliva and Tissue of Oral SCC Patients

Objectives: The aim of this study was to compare presence of Humanpapilloma virus (HPV) in saliva and fresh tissue of patients with oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) by polymerase chain reaction (PCR) inorder to evaluate possibility of using saliva rinse instead of tissue specimens as a simple method of HPV detection.

Methods: The presence of HPV DNA was investigated in saliva rinse and fresh tissue specimens of 22 patients with OSCC aged 14- 80 years (mean 64/2±14/9). HPV was detected using PCR with consensus primers that detect HPV types, 6, 11, 16, 18, 31 and 33.

Results: The distribution of different types of HPV detected in tumor specimens, saliva specimens and both saliva and tumor specimens of patients were respectively as follow: (HPV types: n=9 (41%) , n=9 (41%) , n=5 (22.7%); HPV 6/11 : n=2 (9%),n=3 (13.6%) ,n=2 (9%) ; HPV16 : n=8 (36%), n=6 (27%) , n=3 (13.6%) ; HPV 18 : n=1 (4.5 %), n=1 (4.5%) ,n=0 (0%) .HPV31, 33 were not detected in any saliva and tumor tissue specimens. Among the kinds of the HPV types detected in this study a significantly higher prevalence of HPV-16 was detected in saliva and tumor specimens as compared others. Any significant relationship between different types of HPV in tumor and saliva specimens of OSSC patients was not statistically significant (Mc Nemar, p=1.000).

Conclusion: The amount of HPV DNA recovered from saliva was sufficiently and quality suitable to enable PCR. Since no relationship between HPV DNA test result from saliva rinses and tissue specimens was observed, it probably indicates that the HPV status recovered from saliva does not accurately reflect that of tumors.