Clinical efficacy of an antibody-based detection system for human papilloma virus infection in oral squamous cell carcinoma

OBJECTIVES: There is an increasing number of oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) associated with HPV-16. However, p16 expression by immunohistochemistry as the current gold standard for a surrogate marker for virus infection reveals unsatisfying diagnostic accuracy. The aim of this study was to investigate a new rapid test for L1 antibody detection (Prevocheck®) and to validate its diagnostic performance. MATERIALS AND METHODS: In a prospective study, the HPV 16 association of all consecutive patients with an OSCC treated between 2015 and 2019 were analyzed by L1 seropositivity (via PrevoCheck®), p16 immunostaining, and partly multiplex PCR for subtype analysis. RESULTS: Overall (n = 107), p16 expression was positive in 17 cases (15.9%), and L1 antibody seropositivity in 7 cases (6.5%). In PCR analysis, two cases of HPV35 and 50 were found. Total HPV prevalence was 8.4% overall and 6.5% for HPV-16. An inferior diagnostic accuracy for HPV-16-associated OSCC in comparison to PrevoCheck® was revealed. CONCLUSION: The rapid test for L1 antibodies showed an optimal sensitivity and specificity, positive and negative predictive value, and an overall diagnostic accuracy of 100%. However, HPV prevalence seems low in OSCC. CLINICAL RELEVANCE: L1 rapid test may represent an additional diagnostic staging method to detect HPV-16 association rather than p16 immunohistochemistry.