Treatment failure patterns are similar between p16− and p16+ oropharyngeal squamous cell carcinomas

BACKGROUND: The incidence of p16+ oropharyngeal squamous cell carcinoma (OPSCC) has been increasing. The notion that p16+ OPSCC has a propensity for atypical and disseminating metastasis has gained traction. We compared treatment failure patterns in p16+ and p16− OPSCC and evaluated survival impact. METHODS: Retrospective analysis of patients with recurrent/metastatic OPSCC disease between 1/2009 and 12/2019. RESULTS: Thirty‐eight p16+ and 36 p16− patients were identified. Three distinct failure patterns (distant vs. locoregional, atypical vs. typical, and disseminating vs. non‐disseminating) were studied. No significant differences were found between p16+ and p16− patients. Multivariate analysis showed p16 status was an independent prognostic biomarker; p16+ patients have a favorable overall survival compared to p16− patients (HR 0.34, 95% CI 0.16–0.77; P = .005). CONCLUSIONS: We challenge the view that p16+ OPSCC exhibits a distinctive treatment failure pattern and showed that p16 status impacts patient survival independent of disease progression.