European Pathology and Infectious Disease Conference

The prevalence of cervical HPV among healthy females has been thoroughly studied. Studies addressing the prevalence of oropharyngeal HPV in healthy individuals are on the other hand suboptimal, despite the fact that the incidence of HPV related oropharyngeal cancer is increasing and slightly higher than cervical cancer in countries like Denmark. Two groups of anonymized volunteers were tested by self-sampled oropharyngeal brushings, where the brush head was then dumped in a SurePath® vial (BD), which is designated for pap-smear collection. Group A included 454 hospital employees (354 females and 100 males) with an average age of 40 years, and group B 292 high school students (196 females and 96 males) with an average age of 19 years. Additional samples from attendants in group B were collected in a separate vial by experienced personnel (assisted sampling). Attendant’s gender, age, no. of partners, smoking habits and sexual habits besides HPV vaccination for group B were registered. Slides for cytology and immunostaining (p16, Ki67 and ProEx-C) were processed from each vial. HPV-DNA and HPV-RNA testing were performed on PapilloCheck® (Greiner Bio-One) and the Aptima® kit (Gen-Probe/Hologic) platforms respectively. Less than 1% in both groups harbored any type of HPV-DNA and/or high-risk HPV-RNA in self-sampling as well as assisted samplings method of collection. Morphology and immunostainings added no further information. The low incidence of oropharyngeal HPV in an otherwise sexually active society may argue against public screening, although our method of collection could be questioned.