Association between human papillomavirus infection and prognosis of lung cancer

ObjectiveTo investigate the association between human papillomavirus (HPV) and prognosis of lung cancer.

MethodsWe examined a series of 83 lung cancer patients from Fujian for the presence of HPV DNA in lung tumor specimens. The survival differences of HPV positive and negative patients were compared between different sexes, ages, non-smoking and smoking, pathological types, maximal diameters of tumor, clinical stages, lymph node metastases, distant metastases, pleural effusions and chemotherapy methods.

ResultsHPV-positiveness was detected to be in 7 out of 83 tumor specimens. There was no significant correlation found between HPV infection and the factors such as genders, ages, non-smoking and smoking, pathologic types, maximum tumor diameters, clinical stages, lymph node metastases, distant metastases, pleural effusions and chemotherapy methods(P>0.05). Stratification analysis showed that when HPV positive patients were compared with HPV negative ones, all the differences in their survival were not statistically significant (P>0.05). Cox multivariate regression analysis (including HPV infection) showed similar results, lymph node metastasis were independent risk factors for prognosis HR=11.078(95%CI:0.819-67.454).

ConclusionThese data indicate that HPV is not significantly associated with the prognosis of lung cancer in Fujian.