PT - JOURNAL ARTICLE AU - Agalliu, Ilir AU - Chen, Zigui AU - Wang, Tao AU - Hayes, Richard B. AU - Freedman, Neal D. AU - Gapstur, Susan M. AU - Burk, Robert D. TI - Oral Alpha, Beta, and Gamma HPV Types and Risk of Incident Esophageal Cancer AID - 10.1158/1055-9965.EPI-18-0287 DP - 2018 Oct 01 TA - Cancer Epidemiology Biomarkers & Prevention PG - 1168--1175 VI - 27 IP - 10 4099 - http://cebp.aacrjournals.org/content/27/10/1168.short 4100 - http://cebp.aacrjournals.org/content/27/10/1168.full SO - Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev2018 Oct 01; 27 AB - Background: Several studies have examined association between human papillomaviruses (HPV) and esophageal cancer, but results have been inconsistent. This is the first prospective study to investigate associations between α, β and γ HPV detection in the oral cavity and risk of esophageal cancer.Methods: We conducted a nested case–control study among 96,650 cancer-free participants in the American Cancer Society Cancer Prevention Cohort and the Prostate, Lung, Colorectal, and Ovarian Cancer Screening Trial. Incident esophageal cancer cases (n = 125) were identified during an average 3.9 years of follow-up. Three controls per case (n = 372) were selected and matched on age, sex, race/ethnicity, and time since mouthwash collection. α, β, and γ HPV DNA in oral samples were detected using a next-generation sequencing assay. Conditional logistic regression models were used to estimate OR and 95% confidence intervals (CIs), adjusting for smoking and alcohol consumption. Statistical significance was evaluated using permutation test.Results: Prevalence of oral α, β, and γ HPV was 18.4%, 64.8%, and 42.4% in cases and 14.3%, 55.1%, and 33.6% in controls, respectively. Oral HPV16 detection was not associated with esophageal cancer (OR = 0.54, 95% CI, 0.1–4.84) and none of the esophageal squamous cell carcinoma cases (n = 28) were HPV16 positive. Some oral HPV types were more common in cases than controls; however, none of the associations were statistically significant.Conclusions: Although HPVs in the oral cavity are very common, this study showed no evidence of association between oral HPVs and esophageal cancer.Impact: Oral HPVs may not contribute to risk of esophageal cancer. Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev; 27(10); 1168–75. ©2018 AACR.This article is featured in Highlights of This Issue, p. 1113