Genital HPVs in the Aerodigestive Tract: Etiologic Association with a Subset of Oropharyngeal/Tonsillar Cancers and with Recurrent Respiratory Papillomatosis

The mucosal human papillomaviruses (HPVs) primarily infect the genital tract, but they also infect the mucosa lining the aerodigestive tract where they are etiologically linked to two clinical entities. The high-risk HPV type 16, which is responsible for about 50% of cervical cancers, is linked to a subset of oropharyngeal/ tonsillar cancers. Low-risk HPV types 6 and 11, which cause a large majority of genital warts, are also responsible for juvenile-onset as well as adult-onset recurrent respiratory papillomatosis (RRP).