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THURSDAY, June 13, 2019 (HealthDay News) — Seroconversion to human papillomavirus type 16 (HPV16)-E6 antibody positivity can occur decades before diagnosis of oropharyngeal squamous cell carcinoma (OPSCC), according to a study published online June 12 in the Annals of Oncology<\/i>.<\/p>\n
Aim\u00e9e R. Kreimer, Ph.D., from the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Maryland, and colleagues examined the timing of seroconversion to HPV16-E6 antibody positivity in OPSCC. At least one prediagnostic blood sample was provided by 743 incident OPSCC cases and 5,814 controls.<\/p>\n
The researchers found that 0.4 and 26.2 percent of controls and cases, respectively, had HPV16-E6 seropositivity. HPV16-E6 seropositivity correlated with increased odds of OPSCC in whites and blacks (98.2-fold and 17.2-fold, respectively). In those with blood collection near diagnosis, seropositivity was more frequent in cases in recent periods, ranging from 21.9 percent pre-1996 to 68.4 percent in 2005 onward. With decreasing lead time, HPV16-E6 seropositivity increased: 0.0, 13.5, 23.7, and 38.9 percent with lead times of >30, 20 to 30, 10 to 20, and <10 years, respectively. Seventeen of the 47 HPV16-E6 seropositive cases with serially collected blood samples seroconverted during follow-up (six to 28 years before diagnosis); for the other 30 cases, there was robust seropositivity up to 25 years before diagnosis.<\/p>\n
“Although HPV16 antibodies could be a way to identify people at very high risk of cancer, we are currently missing the critical next steps in the screening process,” Kreimer said in a statement.<\/p>\n