Short communicationAssociation between hepatitis C and B viruses and head and neck squamous cell carcinoma
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Background
In 2020, head and neck cancer (HNC) is expected to affect approximately 833,000 and 151,000 new patients worldwide and in Europe, respectively [1]. HNC includes a heterogeneous group of tumors; more than 90 % are squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC) and about 70 % originate in the oral cavity, pharynx, and larynx [2]. Hepatitis B (HBV) and hepatitis C (HCV) viruses are carcinogenic pathogens associated with the development of hepatocellular carcinoma and non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma [3]. Furthermore, HCV
Objectives
The aim of this case-control study is to investigate the association between HCV/HBV infection an HNSCC risk in Italy, using a cancer-free comparison group.
Study design
After obtaining local ethics committee approval (n. 671/CE Marca), we enrolled 774 HIV-negative patients aged ≥18 years treated for HNSCC between 2000 and 2018. A control group of 1518 cancer-free patients aged ≥18 years undergoing hernioplasty (groin, hypogastric, umbilical, para-umbilical, anterior abdominal wall) was selected from hospital records. In both cases and controls, HBV and HCV serologies were tested before treatment. Previous cancer diagnoses resulted in exclusion from the control
Results
The 774 HNSCC patients tested for HCV and HBV antibodies during the study period included 106 oral cavity (13.7 %), 202 oropharynx (26.1 %), 83 hypopharynx (10.7 %) and 383 larynx (49.5 %).
The prevalence of anti-HCV antibodies (aHCV) was much higher among cancer cases (3.49 %) than controls (1.34 %; p < 0.01), resulting in a 2.5-fold higher HNSCC risk (95 % CI 1.46–4.60) among HCV infected people (Table 1). Similarly, HBsAg prevalence was higher among cases than controls (4.52 % and 1.29 %;
Discussion
This study is the largest case-control study reporting a statistically significant association between HNSCC and infection with HCV and HBV. These findings are clinically relevant and add evidence that HBV and HCV infections are associated with HNSCC with a similar magnitude as the already well recognized association with B-cell non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma [3,10].
Our results support the association between oral cavity SCC and HCV despite ongoing debate in the contemporary literature [11]. This
Funding
None.
Ethical approval
Not required.
Author contributions
PBR, DB, JP, SD have made substantial contributions to conception and design, or acquisition of data, or analysis and interpretation of data;
VB, EV have made substantial contributions to acquisition of data and analysis
DB, JF, AM, MCDM, GS have been involved in drafting the manuscript or revising it critically for important intellectual content; PBR, RR, SD, DB, JP Agreed to be accountable for all aspects of the work in ensuring that questions related to the accuracy or integrity of any part of
Declaration of Competing Interest
None declared.
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HCV infection and the risk of head and neck cancer: A meta-analysis
2020, Oral OncologyCitation Excerpt :Giving the low number of studies, results should be interpreted with caution; indeed, the HKSJ estimates reported wider confidence intervals (Supplementary Fig. 1) and pooled RR was no longer significant for laryngeal cancer (RR = 2.55; 95% CI: 0.35–18.61). Influence analysis revealed that the pooled RR was no longer statistically significant when we excluded the study by Donà et al. (RR = 2.28) [12] or the one by Mahale et al. [19] (RR = 1.82). Conversely, when the study by Amin et al. [3] was ruled out, the pooled RR climbed to 3.76 (95% CI: 2.29–6.16).
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The first two Authors contributed equally to the paper.