Survival benefits of human papillomavirus 16 infection in patients with esophageal squamous cell carcinoma undergoing chemoradiotherapy: A retrospective cohort study

Abstract The role of human papillomavirus 16 (HPV 16) in esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC) remains uncertain. Therefore, this study aimed to investigate the prevalence of HPV 16 in patients with ESCC and its impact on theirprognosis. HPV 16 was detected using FISH, and TP53 status was evaluated via immunohistochemistry. The factors influencing prognosis were ananalyzed using the Log‐rank test and Cox regression analyses. Among 178 patients with ESCC, 105 and 73 patients were categorized into concurrent chemoradiotherapy (CCRT) and postoperative chemoradiotherapy (POCRT) cohorts, respectively. Among 178 patients, 87 (48.87%) tested positive for HPV 16. Log‐rank tests revealed that the overall survival (OS) of patients with ESCC who were HPV 16‐positive was longer than that of those who were HPV 16‐negative (median OS: 57 months vs. 27 months, p < 0.01**). HPV 16 infection and TP53 mutation status were identified as independent events. The OS of patients with mutant TP53 who were HPV 16‐positive was longer than that of those who were HPV 16‐negative in both CCRT and POCRT cohorts ( p = 0.002** for CCRT cohorts and p = 0.0023** for POCRT cohorts). Conversely, HPV 16 infection had no effect on OS in the wild‐type TP53 subgroup ( p = 0.13 and 0.052 for CCRT and POCRT cohorts, respectively). As a conclusion, the positive rate of HPV 16 in ESCC in this study was 48.87% (87/178). Among the patients with ESCC who had TP53 mutation, those who were HPV 16‐positive exhibited a better prognosis than those who were HPV 16‐negative.