Verification of HPV16 as a good prognostic factor for cervical adeno-adenosquamous carcinoma via an international collaborative study

Objective: This study (Asian Gynecologic Oncology Group [AGOG]13-001/Taiwanese Gynecologic Oncology Group [TGOG]1006) was to validate human papillomavirus (HPV)16 as an independent good prognostic factor and investigate the impact of treatment modalities to cervical adenocarcinoma and adenosquamous carcinoma (AD/ASC). Materials and methods: Patients receiving primary treatment at AGOG and TGOG member hospitals for cervical AD/ASC were retrospectively (1993–2014) and prospectively (since 2014) enrolled. DNA extraction from paraffin-embedded tissue (FFPE) specimens was used for HPV genotyping. Those with suspected endometrial origin were excluded for analysis. Results: A total of 354 patients with valid HPV results were enrolled, 287 (81.1%) of which had HPV-positive tumors. The top-3 types were HPV 18 (50.8%), HPV16 (22.9%) and HPV45 (4.0%). The HPV16-negativity rates varied widely across hospitals. 322 patients were eligible for prognostic analyses. By multivariate analysis, advanced stage (HR5.8, 95% confidence interval [CI] 2.1–15.8; HR5.8, 95% CI 1.6–20.5), lymph node metastasis (HR4.6, 95% CI 2.7–7.9; HR7.3, 95% CI 3.8–14.0), and HPV16-positivity (HR0.3, 95% CI 0.1–0.6; HR0.3, 95% CI 0.1–0.9) were independent prognostic factors for progression-free survival (PFS) and overall survival (OS). Stage I patients with primary surgery had better 5-year PFS (82.8% vs 50.0% p = 0.020) and OS (89.3% vs 57.1%, p = 0.017) than those with non-primary surgery, while the propensity scores distribution were similar among the treatment groups. Conclusion: This study confirmed that HPV16-positivity was a good prognostic factor for PFS and OS in AD/ASC, and patients seemed to have better outcome with primary surgery than non-primary surgery.