Subtypes of HPV-Positive Head and Neck Cancers Are Associated with HPV Characteristics, Copy Number Alterations, PIK3CA Mutation, and Pathway Signatures.

ABSTRACT:

Purpose

There is substantial heterogeneity within human papillomavirus (HPV)-associated head and neck cancer (HNC) tumors that predispose them to different outcomes; however, the molecular heterogeneity in this subgroup is poorly characterized due to various historical reasons.

Experimental design

We performed unsupervised gene expression clustering on deeply annotated (transcriptome and genome) HPV(+) HNC samples from two cohorts (84 total primary tumors), including 18 HPV(-) HNC samples, to discover subtypes and characterize the differences between subgroups in terms of their HPV characteristics, pathway activity, whole-genome somatic copy number alterations, and mutation frequencies.

Results

We identified two distinct HPV(+) subtypes (namely HPV-KRT and HPV-IMU). H

SUBMITTER: Zhang Y 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5026546 | biostudies-literature | 2016 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature