Prevalence of High-Risk Nonvaccine Human Papillomavirus Types in Advanced Squamous Cell Carcinoma Among Individuals of African vs Non-African Ancestry.

Abstract

High-risk human papillomavirus (hrHPV) causes squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) at a variety of sites, including cervix, head and neck, anus, vulva, vagina, and penis. The 9-valent HPV vaccine is highly effective at preventing carcinomas at these sites related to the specific HPV types it covers. Among women with hrHPV detected in routine cervical swabs, however, the distribution of hrHPV types is known to differ by racial/ethnic group, with East and West Africans1 and North Americans of African ancestry2,3 showing overrepresentation of hrHPV types that are not covered by the current 9-valent HPV vaccine. Corresponding studies of HPV type distribution by ethnicity in advanced-stage hrHPV-related cancers are limited. In this investigation, we performed a retrospective analysis of a large multiethnic study of advanced-stage carcinoma samples to test the hypothesis that patients of African vs non-African ancestry may show dissimilar distributions of nonvaccine hrHPV types.