Helicobacter pylori (HP) infection is an established causative agent for gastric cancer. Although the oral cavity is a part of the gastrointestinal system, the presence and possible causative role of HP in oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) is a subject of controversy. Therefore, the current study aimed to investigate HP infection in two cohorts of OSCC patients with different demographic characteristics, lifestyles and habitual risk factors. A total of 242 formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded OSCC specimens from two different patient cohorts (Norway, n = 171 and Nepal, n = 71) were used to examine HP using immunohistochemistry (IHC) and quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR). Two different HP specific genes (23S rRNA and ureA) were used for TaqMan-based qPCR, and for subsequent verification using HP specific RIDAGENE HP kit and SYBR Green based qPCR. All of the OSCC specimens from both cohorts were found to be negative for HP infection with IHC and qPCR, although the positive control specimens tested positive. Our findings suggest that HP is absent in the examined OSCC cohorts, irrespective of race, lifestyle and habitual risk factors. This indicates that, in contrast to gastric cancer, HP is an unlikely contributing factor for OSCC pathogenesis.

幽门螺杆菌（HP）感染是胃癌的公认病因。尽管口腔是胃肠道系统的一部分，但是HP在口腔鳞状细胞癌（OSCC）中的存在及其可能的致病作用仍是一个有争议的话题。因此，当前的研究旨在调查两个人口统计学特征，生活方式和习惯性危险因素不同的OSCC患者的HP感染情况。来自两个不同患者队列（挪威，n = 171和尼泊尔，n = 71）的总共242份福尔马林固定石蜡包埋的OSCC标本通过免疫组化（IHC）和定量聚合酶链反应（qPCR）用于检查HP。两种不同的HP特定基因（23S rRNA和ureA）用于基于TaqMan的qPCR，以及随后使用HP特定的RIDAGENE HP试剂盒和基于SYBR Green的qPCR进行的验证。发现两个队列的所有OSCC标本均对IHC和qPCR的HP感染呈阴性，尽管阳性对照标本呈阳性。我们的研究结果表明，所检查的OSCC队列中没有HP，无论种族，生活方式和习惯性危险因素如何。这表明，与胃癌相反，HP是OSCC发病机理的不太可能的促成因素。