Factors Related to Human Papillomavirus Positivity among Oral Cavity and Pharynx Cancers from Surveillance, Epidemiology and End Results (SEER) Program Data

Background:As human papillomavirus positive (HPV+) oral cavity and pharynx cancer (OCPC) incidence increases significantly, our objective was to determine whether selected sociodemographic and clinical factors were associated with HPV+ OCPCs overall and by oropharyngeal and non-oropharyngeal sites.Methods:Surveillance, Epidemiology and End Results (SEER) Program data were used in this study. Specifically, univariate and logistic regression models were used to examine the relationships between HPV+ and HPV− OCPC cases and age, sex, race, ethnicity, marital status, factors of neighborhood socioeconomic status (i.e., nSES/Yost index) and rurality/urbanity, first malignancy status, histology, reporting source, stage at diagnosis, and OCPC anatomic site. The same approach was used to identify risk factors for HPV positivity for oropharyngeal and non-oropharyngeal OCPCs separately.Results:In all OCPCs, cases that were male, Conclusions:Sociodemographic and clinical differences in HPV+ and HPV− OCPC, overall and for (non)oropharyngeal, cases exist.Impact:Identification of OCPC and (non)oropharyngeal risk factors for HPV positivity may assist in discovering high-risk groups that should receive enhanced public health efforts to reduce the U.S. OCPC burden.