Human papillomavirus (HPV) infection is one of the most important etiologic causes of oropharyngeal head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC). Patients with HPV-positive HNSCC were reported to have a better clinical outcome than patients with HPV-negative cancers. However, little is known about the possible causes of different clinical outcomes. In this study, we analyzed a detailed immune profile of tumor samples from HNSCC patients with respect to their HPV status. We analyzed the characteristics of immune cell infiltrates, including the frequency and distribution of antigen-presenting cells and naïve, regulatory and effector T cells and the cytokine and chemokine levels in tumor tissue. There was a profound difference in the extent and characteristics of intratumoral immune cell infiltrates in HNSCC patients based on their HPV status. In contrast to HPV-negative tumor tissues, HPV-positive tumor samples showed significantly higher numbers of infiltrating IFNγ+ CD8+ T lymphocytes, IL-17+ CD8+ T lymphocytes, myeloid dendritic cells and proinflammatory chemokines. Furthermore, HPV-positive tumors had significantly lower expression of Cox-2 mRNA and higher expression of PD1 mRNA compared to HPV-negative tumors. The presence of a high level of intratumoral immune cell infiltrates might play a crucial role in the significantly better response of HPV-positive patients to standard therapy and their favorable clinical outcome. Furthermore, characterization of the HNSCC immune profile might be a valuable prognostic tool in addition to HPV status and might help identify novel targets for therapeutic strategies, including cancer immunotherapy.

Department of Experimental Virology; Institute of Hematology and Blood Transfusion ; Prague Czech Republic ; Department of Genetics and Microbiology; Faculty of Science; Charles University ; Prague Czech Republic

Department of Otorhinolaryngology and Head and Neck Surgery; 1st Faculty of Medicine; Charles University and Motol University Hospital ; Prague Czech Republic

Department of Otorhinolaryngology and Head and Neck Surgery; 1st Faculty of Medicine; Charles University and Motol University Hospital ; Prague Czech Republic ; Institute of Microbiology ASCR ; Prague Czech Republic

Department of Pathology and Molecular Medicine; 2nd Faculty of Medicine; Charles University and Motol University Hospital ; Prague Czech Republic

Sotio Prague Czech Republic

Sotio Prague Czech Republic ; Department of Immunology; 2nd Faculty of Medicine; Charles University; Motol University Hospital ; Prague Czech Republic

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