HPV increases risk of oesophageal cancer

The human papillomavirus (HPV) has been linked to another cancer, oesophageal squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC), according to work led by researchers at the University of New South Wales (UNSW) researchers.

The researchers conducted a meta-analysis of small-scale case-control studies to identify whether there was an association between HPV and oesophageal cancer. In the absence of a large adequately powered case-control trial, the results have resolved previous uncertainty and show that HPV triples the risk of people developing oesophageal cancer.

“One of the main issues is OSCC is usually diagnosed quite late and so has a very high mortality,” said Dr Surabhi Liyanage, PhD candidate with the School of Public Health and Community Medicine, UNSW Medicine and first author of the paper.

Oesophageal cancer is the eighth most common cancer worldwide. And OSCC is the most common of two types of oesophageal cancer.

Although it is rare in Australia, it is the sixth highest cause of cancer-related deaths worldwide. It is particularly prevalent in China, South Africa and Iran among men in their mid-70s to 80s.

“HPV is another factor which we can add to a long list of causes of OSCC,” says Dr Liyanage. “Smoking and alcohol are the main causes, as well as the consumption of extremely hot liquids, lots of red meat and possibly environmental toxins in the diet.”

Given that Gardasil - a vaccine against the two most common HPVs that cause cervical cancer - is now available, these findings could have implications for vaccination programs around the world.

Currently, HPV vaccinations are used most commonly on young people in developed countries to prevent cervical cancer.

In addition to causing cervical, anal and genital cancers, HPV has been found to cause some head and neck cancers.

The work has been published in the open access online journal PLOS One.