Human papilloma virus identification in ocular surface squamous neoplasia by p16 immunohistochemistry and DNA chip test: A strobe-compliant article

The aim of this study was to identify the association between human papilloma virus (HPV) infection and ocular surface squamous neoplasia (OSSN) using p16 immunohistochemistry (IHC) and deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) chip test. Thirty-eight patients who underwent surgical excision of OSSN were retrospectively studied using tissue samples. The IHC was performed to assess the expression of p16 and DNA chip test was used to detect 24 HPV serotypes. Among the 38 OSSN samples, 32 cases (84.2%) were histopathologically categorized as pre-invasive type and 6 cases (15.8%) as invasive type. The IHC for p16 showed strong positivity in 12 cases (31.6%), whereas it was negative in 26 cases (68.4%). On the other hand, only one case (2.6%) of invasive OSSN was positive for the HPV16 serotype, as assessed by DNA chip test. In OSSN, p16 expression was positive in approximately 1/3rd of the cases, whereas the majority of the 24 HPV serotypes were negative for p16. Our findings suggest that only a weak association exists between HPV infection and OSSN.