Association of HPV and EBV in Oral Verrucous Squamous Cell Carcinoma and Oral Verrucous Hyperplasia

Objective Oral verrucous squamous cell carcinoma or oral verrucous carcinoma (OVC) is a rare verrucous variant of oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC), which accounts for 2 to 12% of all oral carcinomas. Oral verrucous hyperplasia (OVH) is clinically similar to OVC and has been proposed to be a precursor lesion of OVC. Etiopathogenesis of both lesions is still inconspicuous. Oncogenic viruses such as human papillomavirus (HPV) and Epstein–Barr virus (EBV) have been reported to be associated with some cases of OSCC, and we hypothesized that it may act as a causative agent of these verrucous lesions. This study aimed to investigate frequency of HPV and EBV infections in OVC and OVH. Material and Methods Using polymerase chain reaction (PCR), a total of 35 formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded (FFPE) tissue samples, including 27 OVC samples and 8 OVH samples, were investigated for HPV and EBV infection. HeLa and B95-8 cell lines were used as positive controls of HPV and EBV PCR, respectively. Results All OVC and OVH samples show a positivity to GAPDH, whereas neither HPV nor EBV PCR products was detected in both OVC and OVH samples. Conclusions In summary, our study demonstrated that HPV and EBV are not involved in pathogenesis of OVC and OVH. Other etiologic factors contributing to OVC and OVH need to be further clarified.