Prevalence and distribution of HPV types in Australian patients with oropharyngeal cancer over time

The incidence of human papillomavirus (HPV)-positive oropharyngeal cancer (OPC) is increasing in Australia, yet very little is known about the dynamics of the HPV types in OPC over time. Here we used a database to identify oropharyngeal cancer patients diagnosed in Queensland in 2009-2011 and 2019-2021. We retrieved and extracted DNA from 526 formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded tumour tissues, which were tested for DNA quality and 14 high-risk (HR)-HPV types. The HPV prevalence in OPC tumour tissue increased from 45% in 2009-2011 to 68% in 2019-2021. HPV-16 was the most common HPV type, found in 90% of all OPCs. HPV-33 (5.7%) was the second most common HPV type followed by HPV-35 (1.6%). Other HPV types found were HPV-18 (1.4%), HPV-39 (0.3%), HPV-56 (0.6%) and HPV-59 (0.6%). Males had a significantly higher HPV prevalence (68.1%) compared to females (35.9%; p < .0001). First Nation Australians had much lower HPV prevalence in their OPC tumours (25.0%) compared with non-First Nation Australians (68.8%; p = .0005). Without an early detection program for OPC, primary prevention with vaccination remains the best available strategy for control, and our findings suggest that HPV vaccination will be able to reduce HPV-driven OPC in the future.