Background: Unlike cervical, anogenital and oropharyngeal cancers, where high-risk human papillomavirus (hrHPV) has long been known to play a major role, a causative link between HPV and lung cancer has been investigated for decades with discrepant results.
Methods: Lung cancer patients eligible for surgical treatment were tested for the presence of HPV-DNA in excised, fresh frozen lung tumor tissue. Patients that tested positive were further examined for the presence of HPV-DNA in adjacent normal lung parenchyma. HPV detection and genotyping was performed using a polymerase chain reaction (PCR)-based approach and allowed the typing of 13 "high-risk"-HPV-types and 2 "low-risk"-HPV-types.
Results: Of the 334 tumor-DNA samples tested, 13 (3.9%) showed presence of HPV-DNA, of which 12 were of a high-risk HPV type (16, 33, 66). In those tested positive, HPV-DNA was not found in adjacent normal lung tissue. No correlation with smoking or EGFR/KRAS mutation status was seen, and only one of 84 squamous cell carcinomas was HPV-positive.
Conclusion: We conclude that HPV is rarely associated with lung cancer in a Northern European population and in those tested positive, more functional studies are required to determine the role HPV plays in lung cancer oncogenesis.