The global incidence of Oropharyngeal Cancers (OPCs) is increasing, and HPV-related infection appears to drive this change (HPV DNA has been detected in 70.1% of OPCs in the US. The burden is higher for developed countries and for males (4-5 higher incidence vs. females).The European data on HPV-related OPCs are not robust. Overall, a substantial difference in high-risk (HR) HPV-related OPCs was reported between Northern/Western and Southern European countries (39% and 17%, respectively) in 2008. More recent data have shown that the OPC rates in Northern and Southern European countries are 50.0% and 9.4%, respectively. At present in Greece, the HPV-AF in OPC was 52.1% according to the ORPHEAS Study. ORPHEAS is a unique study within the Greek OPC setting as it was conducted in eight reference centers covering a substantial geographical area, included patients diagnosed over a recent period (2017- 2022), and used both p16 IHC and HPV DNA PCR testing by a central laboratory to assess HPV status. Although not directly comparable, the HPV-AF found in this study is substantially higher than the rates of 22.0% and 18.2% reported previously by Romanitan et al. and Tsimplaki et al., respectively. A possible reason for the between-study difference in HPV-AFs is the variation in study designs and diagnostic algorithms used for HPV status determination. The difference in time periods could also have contributed to the variation, as the incidence of HPV-associated OPC has increased in recent years. It seems that the HPV-AF in Greece has increased over the years, currently surpassing those reported for Italy (46.1% and 48.3%) and approximating rates of several Northern European countries (range: 51.8%-60.0%). The purpose of this presentation is to present the Attributable Fraction of HPV-related OPC in Greece, to depict the demographic profile of HPV+ OPC patients, to identify the distribution of HPV types and to record the physicians’ choice for treatment strategy.

Eleni Litsou is MD, MSC, PhD, ENT Specialist Assistant Consultant, at University Hospital of Ioannina, Greece. She has 4 master degrees: Neoplastic Disease, Audiology and Neurotology, Thyroid and Parathyroid Gland Surgery, Basic Biomedical Sciences. She has over 75 publications, presentations and posters in national and international conferences and journals. She has been serving as a reviewer of several reputed journals.