Infrequent detection of human papillomavirus infection in head and neck cancers in the Central African Republic: A retrospective study

Abstract

We carried out a retrospective study on the prevalence of HPV and genotype distribution by nested PCR and nucleotide sequencing analysis, in formalin-fixed, paraffin-embedded biopsies of 135 head and neck cancers (HNC) and 29 cervical cancers received between 2009 and 2017 for diagnosis at the Laboratoire National de Biologie Clinique et de Santé Publique of Bangui, the capital city of the Central African Republic. One oropharyngeal squamous cell carcinoma sample was positive for HPV type 16. The overall HPV prevalence in HNC biopsies was 0.74% (95% CI: 0.0-2.2). Among the 29 cervical cancer samples, 19 (65.5%; 95% CI: 48.2-82.8) were positive for HPV. These results indicate that HNC are infrequently associated with HPV infection in the Central African Republic.