New epidemiologic trends in human papillomavirus-related oropharynx cancer in Girona: a cross-sectional study

BACKGROUND: Oropharyngeal squamous cell carcinoma is a disease on the rise, being this epidemiological trend in relation to infection by human papillomavirus (HPV). HPV is now considered a major etiological factor for this subtype of cancer, which affects a particular kind of patient: young adults, without exposition to alcohol or tobacco, and high risk sexual behavior. Recent studies point in the direction of HPV-related cancer having a much better prognosis, what may translate in the future into de-escalation protocols of treatment, specially designed for this subgroup of patients. OBJECTIVES: To analyze the prevalence of Human Papillomavirus infection among patients diagnosed in Hospital Universitari Dr. Josep Trueta. The secondary objectives deal with analyzing the relation between Human Papillomavirus infection and different covariates, in order to provide our doctors with a wider conception of the kind of patients there are treating with. DESIGN: A cross-sectional study has been designed for this purpose. SETTING AND PARTICIPANTS: The study will be performed in Hospital Universitari Dr. Josep Trueta, and a non-probabilistic consecutive sampling is going to be performed; therefore, every patient older than 18 years old diagnosed with oropharyngeal squamous cell carcinoma will be asked to participate in it. OUTCOMES: Our variable of interest, or outcome variable, is the presence of human papillomavirus infection in our population of study, measured by p16 staining via immunochemistry. It will be analyzed as a nominal dichotomous qualitative variabl