Objective: To systematically explore the prevalence of human papillomavirus (HPV) in laryngeal cancer (LC) in Chinese and evaluate the association between HPV infection and laryngeal cancer risk.
Methods: The databases both in English and Chinese were searched. And the studies met the inclusion criteria were included. The prevalence of HPV in LC group and in subgroups, stratified by publishing years and sample storage methods, were analyzed by the R 3.0 software respectively. The cancer risk of HPV infection was estimated by odds ratio (OR) generated by comparisons with the control group.
Results: The overall prevalence of HPV was 32% [95% confidence interval (CI): 22%-44%] and the prevalence of high-risk HPV-16/18 and low-risk HPV-6/11 was 30% (95%CI: 24%-37%) and 12% (95%CI: 9%-17%) respectively in Chinese LC patients. The HPV-16/18 infection rate was 24% (95%CI: 15%-35%) in the subgroup between 1992 and 2000 and 32% (95%CI: 24%-41%) in the subgroup from 2001 to 2012 respectively. And no significant difference existed between two subgroups (P = 0.07). The HPV-16/18 infection rate in formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded sample cohort was not significantly different from the fresh-frozen sample cohort [31% (95%CI: 24%-39%) and 28% (95%CI: 18%-42%); P = 0.06]. Meta-analysis showed the overall HPV infection rate in the LC group was significantly higher than in the control group (OR = 15.87 (95%CI: 9.25-27.24); P < 0.01). Moreover, as compared with the control group, the patients in the LC group had a higher infection rate of HPV-16/18 (OR = 8.07 (95%CI: 5.67-11.48); P < 0.01).
Conclusions: HPV infection rates in Chinese LC patients stay at a relatively high level and tend to increase over time. And HPV infection may increase LC risk in Chinese.