Nam HJ, Ryu H, Lee DW, Byeon JY, Kim JH, Lee JH, Lim S, Choi HJ. Expression rates of p16, p53 in head and neck cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma based on human-papillomavirus positivity. World J Clin Cases 2025; 13(9): 99463 [DOI: 10.12998/wjcc.v13.i9.99463]
Corresponding Author of This Article
Hwan Jun Choi, PhD, Professor, Department of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery, College of Medicine, Soonchunhyang University, No. 44 Suncheonhyang 4-gil, Dongnam-gu, Cheonan-si 31151, South Korea. iprskorea@gmail.com
Research Domain of This Article
Surgery
Article-Type of This Article
Retrospective Cohort Study
Open-Access Policy of This Article
This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
World J Clin Cases. Mar 26, 2025; 13(9): 99463 Published online Mar 26, 2025. doi: 10.12998/wjcc.v13.i9.99463
Expression rates of p16, p53 in head and neck cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma based on human-papillomavirus positivity
Ha-Jong Nam, Heongrae Ryu, Da-Woon Lee, Je Yeon Byeon, Jun Hyuk Kim, Ji Hye Lee, Soomin Lim, Hwan Jun Choi
Ha-Jong Nam, Department of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery, Soonchunhyang University Gumi Hospital, Gumi-si 39371, South Korea
Heongrae Ryu, Da-Woon Lee, Je Yeon Byeon, Jun Hyuk Kim, Hwan Jun Choi, Department of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery, College of Medicine, Soonchunhyang University, Cheonan-si 31151, South Korea
Ji Hye Lee, Department of Pathology, Soonchunhyang University Hospital, Cheonan-si 31151, South Korea
Soomin Lim, Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery, University College London, Medical School, London WC1E 6DE, United Kingdom
Author contributions: Nam HJ and Lee JH contributed to manuscript writing; Ryu H contributed to conceptualization and methodology; Lee DW and Byeon JY contributed to project administration; Lim S contributed to data collection; Kim JH and Choi HJ contributed to manuscript review, editing, visualization, analysis, and supervision; and all authors have read and approved the final manuscript.
Supported by the National Research Foundation of Korea, No. 2020R1A2C1100891; and Soonchunhyang University Research Fund, No. 2024-05-014.
Institutional review board statement: The study was approved by the Institutional Review Board of Soonchunhyang University Hospital, approval No. 2024-05-014.
Informed consent statement: Signed informed consent was obtained from all the participants.
Conflict-of-interest statement: All the authors report no relevant conflicts of interest for this article.
Data sharing statement: No additional data are available.
STROBE statement: The authors have read the STROBE Statement-checklist of items, and the manuscript was prepared and revised according to the STROBE Statement-checklist of items.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: https://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Hwan Jun Choi, PhD, Professor, Department of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery, College of Medicine, Soonchunhyang University, No. 44 Suncheonhyang 4-gil, Dongnam-gu, Cheonan-si 31151, South Korea. iprskorea@gmail.com
Received: July 23, 2024 Revised: November 2, 2024 Accepted: December 2, 2024 Published online: March 26, 2025 Processing time: 141 Days and 23.3 Hours
Abstract
BACKGROUND
The high prevalence of human papillomavirus (HPV) infection in oropharyngeal squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) is well established, and p16 expression is a strong predictor. HPV-related tumors exhibit unique mechanisms that target p16 and p53 proteins. However, research on HPV prevalence and the combined predictive value of p16 and p53 expression in head and neck cutaneous SCC (HNCSCC), particularly in Asian populations, remains limited. This retrospective study surveyed 62 patients with HNSCC (2011-2020), excluding those with facial warts or other skin cancer.
AIM
To explore the prevalence of HPV and the predictive value of p16 and p53 expression in HNCSCC in Asian populations.
METHODS
All patients underwent wide excision and biopsy. Immunohistochemical staining for HPV, p16, and p53 yielded positive and negative results. The relevance of each marker was investigated by categorizing the tumor locations into high-risk and middle-risk zones based on recurrence frequency.
RESULTS
Of the 62 patients, 20 (32.26%) were male, with an average age of 82.27 years (range 26-103 years). High-risk included 19 cases (30.65%), with the eyelid and lip being the most common sites (five cases, 8.06%). Middle-risk included 43 cases (69.35%), with the cheek being the most common (29 cases, 46.77%). The p16 expression was detected in 24 patients (38.71%), p53 expression in 42 patients (72.58%), and HPV in five patients (8.06%). No significant association was found between p16 expression and the presence of HPV (P > 0.99), with a positive predictive value of 8.33%.
CONCLUSION
This study revealed that p16, a surrogate HPV marker in oropharyngeal SCC, is not reliable in HNCSCC, providing valuable insights for further research in Asian populations.
Core Tip: Human papillomavirus (HPV) plays an important role in certain head and neck cancers; however, its role in these cancers remains unclear. We examined 62 patients to determine the prevalence of HPV and its relationship with p16 and p53 expression levels. These results indicate that p16 is not a reliable HPV marker in these skin cancers, unlike in other head and neck cancers. This study provides insights into the interactions between HPV, p16, and p53 in head and neck skin cancers, particularly in Asian populations, potentially improving our understanding and treatment of these cancers.
