The Relation of HPV Infection and Expression of p53 and p16 Proteins in Esophageal Squamous Cells Carcinoma.

To investigate the HPV prevalence and characterize the expression of potential molecular surrogate markers of HPV infection in esophageal squamous cell carcinoma. The prevalence of HPV in individuals with and without esophageal cancer (EC) was determined by using multiplex PCR; p16 and p53 protein levels were assessed by immunohistochemistry (IHC). High-risk HPV (hr-HPV) was found in the same frequency (13.8%) in esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC) and in healthy individuals. The p53 expression was positive in 67.5% of tumor tissue, 20.0% of adjacent non-tumoral tissue and 1.8% of normal esophageal tissue. p16 was positive in 11.6% of esophageal cancer cases and 4.7% of adjacent non-tumoral tissue. p16 was undetectable among control group samples. p53 and p16 levels were not significantly associated with the HPV status. These results suggest that hr-HPV types are not associated with the development of ESCC and that p53 and p16 protein expression have no relationship with HPV infection in normal or cancerous esophagus.