%0 Journal Article
%A Schroeder, Lea
%A Boscolo-Rizzo, Paolo
%A Dal Cin, Elisa
%A Romeo, Salvatore
%A Baboci, Lorena
%A Dyckhoff, Gerhard
%A Hess, Jochen
%A Lucena-Porcel, Carlota
%A Byl, Anne
%A Becker, Nikolaus
%A Alemany, Laia
%A Castellsagué, Xavier
%A Quer, Miquel
%A León, Xavier
%A Wiesenfarth, Manuel
%A Pawlita, Michael
%A Holzinger, Dana
%T Human papillomavirus as prognostic marker with rising prevalence in neck squamous cell carcinoma of unknown primary: A retrospective multicentre study.
%J European journal of cancer
%V 74
%@ 0959-8049
%C Amsterdam [u.a.]
%I Elsevier
%M DKFZ-2017-01092
%P 73 - 81
%D 2017
%X Patients with neck squamous cell carcinomas of unknown primary tumour (NSCCUP) present with lymph node metastasis without evidence for a primary tumour. Most patients undergo an aggressive multimodal treatment, which induces severe, potentially unnecessary toxicity. Primary tumours of NSCCUP can be hidden in the oropharynx. Human papillomavirus (HPV) is causally involved in a subgroup of oropharyngeal squamous cell carcinomas (OPSCC) associated with early lymph node metastasis and good prognosis. Detection of markers for HPV transformation in NSCCUP could allow focussing on the oropharynx in primary tumour search and could be of value for choice and extent of treatment. In a retrospective multicentre study (Germany, Italy and Spain), we analysed metastatic lymph nodes from 180 NSCCUP patients for the presence of HPV DNA, HPV E6*I mRNA and cellular p16(INK4a) overexpression, a surrogate marker for HPV-induced transformation. HPV status, defined as positivity for viral mRNA with at least one additional marker, was correlated with clinical parameters and survival outcome. A substantial proportion (16
%F PUB:(DE-HGF)16
%9 Journal Article
%$ pmid:28335889
%R 10.1016/j.ejca.2016.12.020
%U https://inrepo02.dkfz.de/record/120666