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Association of prostate cancer with human papillomavirus infections: a case-control study

Prostate Cancer and Prostatic Diseases (2023)Cite this article

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Abstract

Background

The highly oncogenic human papillomavirus (HPV) is associated with numerous cancer types. While the role of viruses in the development of certain cancers is well established, the association between HPV infections and prostate cancer remains a subject of ongoing debate. This study aimed to investigate a potential association of prostate cancer with HPV infections utilizing a case-control study.

Methods

We extracted data from the Taiwan Longitudinal Health Insurance Database 2010. We retrieved 5137 patients with prostate cancer as cases and a 3:1 ratio of propensity score-matched patients without prostate cancer (15,411 patients) as controls. Multiple logistic regression analyses were carried out to scrutinize the association of prostate cancer with HPV infections while taking into account age, monthly income category, geographic location and urbanization level of the patient’s residence as well as hyperlipidemia, diabetes, hypertension and chronic prostatitis, tobacco use disorder, and alcohol abuse/alcohol dependence syndrome.

Results

The data indicate that out of all sampled patients, 1812 (8.8%) had a prior diagnosis of HPV infections before the index date. Among cases and matched controls, HPV infections were diagnosed in 743 (14.5%) and 1069 (6.9%) patients, respectively. The results from the chi-square test demonstrate that individuals with prostate cancer exhibited a significantly higher incidence rate of HPV infections than their control counterparts (p < 0.001). Furthermore, in comparison to controls, individuals with a history of HPV infections had an adjusted odds ratio of 2.321 (95% CI: 2.097~2.568) for developing prostate cancer. Notably, individuals diagnosed with chronic prostatitis were also more likely to be subsequently diagnosed with prostate cancer (adjusted odds ratio=1.586; 95% CI = 1.338~1.879), which aligns with expectations in this context.

Conclusions

We found prostate cancer to be significantly associated with HPV infections, contributing to the mounting body of evidence indicating a plausible connection between the two.

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Data availability

Data from the National Health Insurance Research Database, now managed by the Health and Welfare Data Science Center (HWDC), can be obtained by interested researchers through a formal application process addressed to the HWDC, Department of Statistics, Ministry of Health and Welfare, Taiwan (https://dep.mohw.gov.tw/DOS/lp-2506-113.html, accessed on 2 January 2022).

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Author information

Author notes

  1. These authors contributed equally: Shih-Han Hung, Tsai-Ching Liu, Herng-Ching Lin.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Cancer Center, Wan Fang Hospital, Taipei Medical University, Taipei, Taiwan

    Shuo-Han Yin

  2. School of Health Care Administration, College of Management, Taipei Medical University, Taipei, Taiwan

    Shuo-Han Yin & Herng-Ching Lin

  3. Division of Urology, Department of Surgery, Far Eastern Memorial Hospital, New Taipei City, Taiwan

    Shiu-Dong Chung

  4. Department of Healthcare Administration, College of Healthcare & Management, General Education Center, Asia Eastern University of Science and Technology, Taipei, Taiwan

    Shiu-Dong Chung

  5. Department of Otolaryngology, School of Medicine, Taipei Medical University, Taipei, 110, Taiwan

    Shih-Han Hung

  6. Department of Otolaryngology, Wan Fang Hospital, Taipei, 110, Taiwan

    Shih-Han Hung

  7. International Ph.D. Program in Medicine, College of Medicine, Taipei Medical University, Taipei, 110, Taiwan

    Shih-Han Hung

  8. Department of Public Finance, Public Finance and Finance Research Center, National Taipei University, New Taipei City, Taiwan

    Tsai-Ching Liu

  9. Research Center of Data Science on Healthcare Industry, College of Management, Taipei Medical University, Taipei, Taiwan

    Tsai-Ching Liu

  10. Research Center of Sleep Medicine, Taipei Medical University Hospital, Taipei, Taiwan

    Herng-Ching Lin

Authors
  1. Shuo-Han Yin
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Contributions

Concept: SHY, HCL; data acquisition: TCL, HCL; Clinical interpretation: CSD, SHH, SHY; Statistical analysis: TCL; Manuscript drafting: SHY, HCL, CSD, SHH, TCL; Supervision: HCL. All authors have contributed to the final version of the manuscript.

Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Tsai-Ching Liu or Herng-Ching Lin.

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Competing interests

The authors declare no competing interests.

Ethics approval

The study was approved by the institutional review board of Taipei Medical University (TMU-JIRB N202308029).

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Yin, SH., Chung, SD., Hung, SH. et al. Association of prostate cancer with human papillomavirus infections: a case-control study. Prostate Cancer Prostatic Dis (2023). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41391-023-00772-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41391-023-00772-1

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