Detection of circulating tumor HPV-DNA in patients with HPV-positive sinonasal and nasopharyngeal carcinoma
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.2340/1651-226X.2026.46393Keywords:
HPV, ctHPV-DNA, biomarker, sinonasal carcinoma, nasopharyngeal carcinomaAbstract
Background: Approximately 30% of sinonasal and nasopharyngeal carcinoma cases are HPV-associated, yet studies investigating circulating tumor HPV-DNA (ctHPV-DNA) among these patients are scarce. The aim of this study was to investigate the sensitivity of ctHPV-DNA in pretreatment blood samples from patients with HPV-positive (HPV+) sinonasal and nasopharyngeal carcinoma.
Methods: Patients with a confirmed HPV+ sinonasal or nasopharyngeal carcinoma treated at the Department of Otorhinolaryngology, Head and Neck Surgery and Audiology at Rigshospitalet, Copenhagen, Denmark in the period 2017–2025 were included in this study. Blood samples were drawn in Streck tubes before treatment initiation and analysed for the presence of ctHPV-DNA by Droplet digital PCR (ddPCR).
Results: Fifteen patients with primary HPV+ sinonasal or nasopharyngeal carcinoma were included. Except for two cases of HPV-related multiphenotypic carcinoma, all cases were squamous cell carcinoma. HPV16 was most prevalent and found in 6 patients (40%). HPV18 (n = 2), HPV33 (n = 1), HPV35 (n = 3), HPV45 (n = 1), and HPV56 (n = 2) were also represented. The sensitivity of detecting ctHPV-DNA in the pretreatment blood samples of the included patients was 80%. The level of ctHPV-DNA increased significantly with increasing T-category.
Conclusion: ctHPV-DNA was detected in pretreatment blood samples in 80% of patients with HPV+ sinonasal and nasopharyngeal carcinoma. This supports further investigation of ctHPV-DNA as a biomarker for post-treatment surveillance in these patients.
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Copyright (c) 2026 Jakob Myllerup Jensen, Simone Kloch Bendtsen, Kathrine Kronberg Jakobsen, Katalin Kiss, Maria Rossing, Christian Grønhøj, Christian von Buchwald
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
