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

• DOI: 10.1002/lio2.779
• Publication Date: 2022-06-01T09:43:22Z
• Authors: Chelsea S. Hamill; Richard Grant Muller; Kate Clancy; Brandon Vu; Shanying Gui; Jason Eric Thuener; Jay Wasman; Shawn Li; Nicole Fowler; Rod Rezaee; Pierre Lavertu; Theodoros N. Teknos; Quintin Pan; Wendi Quinn O'Neill
• Keywords: 0303 health sciences; RD1-811; oropharyngeal cancer; Head and Neck, and Tumor Biology; p16; 3. Good health; 03 medical and health sciences; disease progression; Otorhinolaryngology; RF1-547; head and neck cancer; Surgery; treatment failure

AbstractBackgroundThe 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.MethodsRetrospective analysis of patients with recurrent/metastatic OPSCC disease between 1/2009 and 12/2019.ResultsThirty‐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).ConclusionsWe challenge the view that p16+ OPSCC exhibits a distinctive treatment failure pattern and showed that p16 status impacts patient survival independent of disease progression.