Background:HPV has a causative role in a small subgroup of laryngeal squamous cell carcinoma (LSCC).
Aim: This study investigated the potentially prognostic indicators of early LSCCs, including HPV status, to provide basis for individual management.
Methods:A total of 336 patients with T2N0-1M0 LSCC were included in this study. All patients received primarily radical surgery. Patients with adverse features were eliminated. HPV infection and p16INK4A expression were detected.
Results:A total of 32/318 cases of high-risk HPV infection and 12/336 cases of p16INK4A overexpression were found in the cohort. Among HPV DNA positive LSCCs, 6 out of 32 (18.8%) cases showed high p16INK4A expression. HPV-positive cases or non-anemia cases had a significantly longer OS (p=0.038; p<0.001), DSS (p=0.047; p<0.001), and RFS (p=0.006; p=0.033). N1 stage had a significantly reduced RFS (p=0.002), but had no impact on OS (p=0.323) and DSS (p=0.611). In multivariate analysis, HPV-positive (RR, 0.18; 95%CI, 0.04 to 0.77; p=0.020), non-anemia (RR, 1.86; 95%CI, 1.15 to 3.01; 0.011), and N0 stage (RR, 2.89; 95%CI, 1.37 to 6.12; p=0.005) are significantly independent predictors for high RFS. But only HPV-positive (RR, 0.35; 95%CI, 0.13 to 0.99; p=0.047) and non-anemia (RR, 2.38; 95%CI, 1.56 to 3.61; p<0.001) are significant predictor for superior OS.
Conclusions:HPV infection and anemia status are independent predictors for survival even in early LSCCs that were treated with primarily radical surgery.