Abstract
Background: Human papillomavirus (HPV) can cause cervical, other genital, anal, head, and neck cancers. The incidence of oropharyngeal squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC), the head and neck cancer most commonly caused by HPV infection, is increasing.
The prevalence of oral HPV infections is considerably lower than that of genital HPV infections; however, infection of both sites is strongly associated with sexual behavior. Although the natural histories of cervical and oral HPV infections do not markedly differ, the virus seems to rarely infect oral and genital sites simultaneously.
On the other hand, the standardized incidence ratio of OSCC is higher in cervical cancer patients than in other populations. Furthermore, women with OSCC have a significantly increased risk of developing HPV-related genital cancers.
Administration of the HPV vaccine to both genders will undoubtedly dramatically change the epidemiology of HPV-related cancers. Aim: This work provides an overview of the literature and estimates the risk of OSCC in women with anogenital HPV infections.
Conclusion: The biological relationship between different HPV-infected sites might be complex; however, the increased prevalence of HPV in oral samples of women positive for anogenital HPV indicates that such infections are unlikely to be independent of one another. Sexual activity likely affects the risk of concurrent anogenital and oral coinfections.
However, it is also possible that one infection site provides a reservoir that can increase the risk of autoinoculation at anatomically distant locations or that coinfections develop as a result of other factors, such as immunodeficiency. Nevertheless, women with HPV-associated malignancy undoubtedly have a higher risk of developing OSCC.