Brush samples of oral lesions to FTA elute card for high-risk human papilloma virus diagnosis

Abstract

Aim: To investigate the level of agreement between three non-invasive methods for hrHPV diagnosis in oral and oropharyngeal squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC, OPSCC) and in oral mucosal lesions. Materials and Methods: For hrHPV DNA FTA Elute card™ and Anyplex II HPV28™ were used and for hrHPV mRNA PreTect SEE™ in tumour patients (n=60), non-tumour lesions (n=51), immunosuppression or previous hrHPV-infection (n=32). Results: The level of agreement between the DNA-methods was 82.2% (k=0.54, p=0.001). Pairwise comparison for the FTA Elute card were close to the reference (AUC=0.83, 95% CI=0.73-0.90). hrHPV mRNA was diagnosed in 50% of the tumours, with an agreement level of 58.3%, compared to Anyplex II (k=0.17, p=0.04). The hrHPV positivity in oral lesions was 3.9% for immunosuppression and for previous HPV infection 9.4%. Conclusion: The FTA card is reliable for hrHPV DNA diagnosis while mRNA gives an insight into viral activity and correlates with severity of the lesion.