HPV infection and carcinogenesis in the upper aero-digestive tract

recently, molecular and epidemiological studies have shown an etiologic role for human papillomavirus (hpv) in a subset of upper aero-digestive tract (uadt) cancers in women and men. oral hpv infections acquired through oral sex seems to be the main risk factor for hpv-associated oral cancers. the high-risk type hpv-16 was the most prevalent infection hpv-positive in most oral cancers. therefore, the prophylactic vaccine against hpv-16 could prevent hpv associated oral cancer if the vaccine were demonstrated to be capable of preventing oral hpv-16 infection. thus, these findings have created new potential opportunities for the primary prevention of oral cancers.