Prevalence of human papillomavirus in benign and malignant laryngeal lesions in Egyptian patients: Cross-sectional study.

OBJECTIVE: To assess the prevalence of human papillomavirus (HPV) in benign and malignant laryngeal lesions among Egyptian patients.

DESIGN: Observational analytical cross-sectional study.

SETTING: Ain Shams University hospital, Otorhinolaryngology department PARTICIPANTS: Formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded specimens of 126 patients (70 benign laryngeal lesions and 56 squamous cell carcinoma lesions) were assessed for the presence of HPV DNA using MY09/11 PCR-based DNA detection.

MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Percentage of positive samples was calculated.

RESULTS: All 70 benign laryngeal lesion specimens were negative for the HPV DNA, while 2 of the 56 squamous cell carcinoma lesions (3.6%) were positive.

CONCLUSIONS: The presence of HPV DNA in only two specimens in our study suggests that the proportion of laryngeal squamous cell carcinomas attributable to infection by HPV seems to be very low in Egypt.