Relationship of human papillomavirus to schneiderian papillomas

Objectives/Hypothesis: To classify a large group of Schneiderian papillomas (SPs) into their histologic subtypes and to determine the incidence of hum an papillomavirus (HPV) in each subtype. Study Design: Pathologic review an d polymerase chain reaction-based (PCR-based) examination of archived tissu e. Methods: Slides of 114 tumors diagnosed as Schneiderian, inverting, fung iform, or cylindric cell papillomas, or any associated carcinomas, were exa mined by a head and neck pathologist. Using PCR, consensus primers for the LI region of HPV were used to determine the presence of HPV in the tumors, This was also performed on normal turbinate control specimens. Results: Eig hty-two (78%) were the inverting subtype, 21 (20%) the fungiform subtype, a nd 2 (2%) the cylindric cell type, Nine tumors were diagnosed as either ver rucous or squamous cell carcinoma, Eighty-eight percent of the tumors had D NA of sufficient quality to be amplified using PCR, Of these, 5 of 69 (6.8% ) inverting, 17 of 17 (100%) fungiform, and 0 of 2 cylindric cell papilloma s were positive for HPV. One of nine (11.1%) cancers was positive for HPV. No normal turbinate tissue contained HPV. HPV types 6b and II accounted for all cases of fungiform papillomas. Of the five HPV-positive inverting papi llomas, three had I-IPV type 11 and two had HPV type 16. The single carcino ma containing HPV contained HPV type 18. Conclusions: The histologic subtyp e of SPs is important, as their etiologies appear to be different. HPV 6b a nd 11 appear to be involved in all cases of fungiform papillomas but are on ly rarely involved in cases of inverting or cylindric cell papillomas, HPV 16 may rarely play a role in cases of inverting papillomas, and HPV 16 and 18 may be involved in a subset of cases of carcinomas originating in an inv erting papilloma.