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Prevalence of Epstein Barr Virus and Herpes Simplex Virus Among Human Papillomavirus Negative Oral Cancer Patients: A Cross-Sectional Study from South India

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Abstract

The high incidence of oral carcinomas is due to its multifactorial etiology and the presence of various risk factors. Human Papillomavirus (HPV) has a proven role in the pathogenesis of oral carcinomas, but in the recent times there has been an increasing incidence of oral cancers who are negative for HPV infection. Also, these patients are non-smokers and non-drinkers so it could be speculated that these oral cancers are due to some other etiological factor probably of other viral infections. Therefore, this study examined the prevalence of Epstein Barr Virus (EBV) and Herpes Simplex Virus (HSV) among oral cancer patients. This cross-sectional study was conducted from January 2019 to June 2020. Biopsy samples from 47 newly diagnosed untreated patients with oral malignancies were collected along with their demographic and clinicopathological information. DNA extracted from the biopsies was processed for nested PCR for the detection of EBV and HSV. All the samples tested negative for HPV and HSV infection. Nested PCR detected 29 cases (70.7%) to be positive for EBV. The non-cancerous adjacent tissues also were negative for HPV, EBV and HSV. The prevalence of EBV was found to be more in males (62.1%) and the highest number of cases was of the left buccal mucosa compromising 34% of the total cases. From the present study it can be concluded that EBV but not HSV infection is associated with an increased risk of developing oral cancers. Although, 70.7% of the patients were found to be positive for EBV whether the viral infection played any role in the driving the malignancy needs to be further elucidated.

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Acknowledgements

The authors thank Nitte (Deemed to be University) for providing the facilities to conduct the study. The authors thank Dr. Avinash Shetty, Wake Forest University School of Medicine, Winston-Salem for his constructive feedback and proofreading the manuscript for English language.

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This study was not supported by any funding.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of General Surgery, KS Hegde Medical Academy (KSHEMA), Nitte (Deemed to be University), Deralakatte, Mangaluru, Karnataka, 575018, India

    Paras Jain & Nawin Kumar

  2. Department of Surgery, Manipal TATA Medical College, Jamshedpur, India

    Nawin Kumar

  3. Central Research Laboratory, KS Hegde Medical Academy (KSHEMA), Nitte (Deemed to be University), Deralakatte, Mangaluru, Karnataka, 575018, India

    Shriya C. Shetty, Shwetha Shetty Kalladka & Prakash Patil

  4. Centre of Excellence in Molecular Biology & Regenerative Medicine (DST-FIST Sponsored centre), Department of Biochemistry, JSS Medical College, JSS Academy of Higher Education & Research, Mysuru, Karnataka, 570015, India

    Pushkal Sinduvadi Ramesh & Devanand Devegowda

  5. Department of Otorhinolaryngology, Head and Neck Surgery, Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, 19104, United States

    Pushkal Sinduvadi Ramesh

  6. Nitte University Centre for Stem Cell Research & Regenerative Medicine (NUCSReM), KS Hegde Medical Academy (KSHEMA), Nitte (Deemed to be University), Deralakatte, Mangaluru, Karnataka, 575018, India

    Mohana Kumar

  7. Department of Surgical Oncology, KS Hegde Medical Academy (KSHEMA), Nitte (Deemed to be University), Deralakatte, Mangaluru, Karnataka, 575018, India

    Vinay Kumar Rajendra

  8. Department of Microbiology, KS Hegde Medical Academy (KSHEMA), Nitte (Deemed to be University), Deralakatte, Mangaluru, Karnataka, 575018, India

    Veena Shetty

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  1. Paras Jain
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Contributions

Paras Jain: Conceptualization, Data curation, Investigation, Methodology; Nawin Kumar: Conceptualization, Project administration, Resources, Supervision; Shriya Shetty: Formal analysis, Methodology, Investigation; Shwetha Shetty: Formal analysis, Methodology, Investigation; Pushkal Ramesh: Data curation, Software, Validation, Writing- Original draft preparation, reviewing and editing; Prakash Patil: Supervision, Validation, Writing- Reviewing and editing; Mohan Kumar: Supervision, Validation, Writing- Reviewing and editing; Vinay Rajendra: Data curation, Investigation, Resources; Devanand Devegowda: Validation, Writing- Original draft preparation, reviewing and editing; Veena Shetty: Conceptualization, Project administration, Resources, Supervision, Writing- Reviewing and editing; All the authors: Approval of the final version of the manuscript.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Veena Shetty.

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All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards. The study was approved by Institutional Review Board (INST.EC/EC/183/2018-19).

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Jain, P., Kumar, N., Shetty, S.C. et al. Prevalence of Epstein Barr Virus and Herpes Simplex Virus Among Human Papillomavirus Negative Oral Cancer Patients: A Cross-Sectional Study from South India. Indian J Otolaryngol Head Neck Surg 76, 414–421 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12070-023-04174-6

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