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Racial Disparities in Incidence of Human Papillomavirus–Associated Oropharyngeal Cancer in an Urban Population

Objectives: (1) Determine whether there is a difference in the incidence of human papillomavirus (HPV)–associated oropharyngeal carcinoma (OPC) between non-Hispanic Caucasians and minorities in an institutional series drawn from the highly urbanized population of New York City. Methods: Several recent studies suggest that rates of HPV-associated OPC are higher in Caucasians than in minorities. We hypothesized that this difference would be lower in the highly diverse, urban population of New York City. This is a retrospective chart review of 240 patients with surgically treated OPC at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai (ISMMS) between 1999 to 2013. Researchers determined age, sex, race, ethnicity, and tumor site of study participants. Polymerase chain reaction (PCR) was used to detect the presence of oncogenic HPV-DNA in paraffin tumor blocks. Incidence of HPV-positive cancers was compared between Caucasians and minorities (defined as African Americans, Asians, and Hispanics) using Fisher’s exact test. Results: We found a higher incidence of HPV-positive OPC HPV in Caucasians than racial minorities within the ISMMS population (P = .010). HPV incidence detected by PCR was 149 out of 192 (77.6%) for Caucasians and 28 out of 48 (58.3%) for minorities. Specifically, there was a higher incidence in Caucasians compared with African Americans (P = .024), but no significant difference between Caucasians and Hispanics (P = .218). There were no significant differences between the 2 cohorts in sex or age. Conclusions: The incidence of HPV-positive OPC is higher in non-Hispanic Caucasians than in minorities in New York City. This observation is consistent with previously reported trends from study populations in less urbanized areas.