Viral Markers Inside Neoplastic Tissues in a Set of 68 Samples from 57 Upper Airways Cancer Cases

A contribution of Epstein-Barr Virus (EBV), Human Cytomegalovirus (HCMV), and certain types of Human Papilloma Virus (HPV) to the overall pathogenesis of upper airways cancers seems a priori reasonably conceivable. The existing evidence mostly relates them to nasopharyngeal squamous and undifferentiated carcinomas; indications emerge about their involvement in other upper airways cancers too. Markers of EBV, HCMV, HPV16, HPV18, (and Mycoplasma pneumoniae as a negative control) were searched in a series of 68 samples of neoplastic tissues from 57 patients diagnosed with different upper airways cancers. The results provide clues in favor of an actual role of EBV, HCMV, and HPV18, in the web of causation of upper airways squamous and undifferentiated carcinomas, possibly of upper airways adenocarcinomas too.