Abstract:Objective To analyze the clinical characteristics, survival rate and prognosis of human papillomavirus (HPV)-related oropharyngeal squamous cell carcinoma (OPSCC), and to explore the impact of different treatment options on patients' quality of life, so as to make better treatment plan and estimate the prognosis.Methods Clinical data of 38 patients with HPV-related OPSCC diagnosed and treated in Beijing Friendship Hospital from Jan 2014 to Jan 2019 were collected. There were 31 males and 7 females. The OPSCC included tonsil cancer 24 cases, tongue base cancer 14 cases. Of them, 13 cases were HPV positive and 25 were negative. As for the clinical stage, 10 cases were stage I~II and 28 were stage III~IV. Six cases were treated with concurrent chemoradiotherapy or radiotherapy alone, 27 with surgery plus postoperative chemoradiotherapy/radiotherapy, and 5 with induction chemotherapy plus radiotherapy and surgery or postoperative supplementary radiotherapy. The clinical characteristics of HPV infection were analyzed by chi-square test. The survival rate and prognostic factors were calculated by Kaplan-Meier method, log-rank univariate analysis and Cox regression model multivariate analysis. The quality of life was analyzed by the non-parametric rank sum test.Results Among all the patients, those with neither smoking nor drinking had higher HPV positive rates (P=0.014, P=0.049), and those with positive HPV were more likely to have cervical lymph node metastasis (P=0.032). The overall survival rates of patients with positive HPV and tumor stage I-II were higher (P=0.003,P=0.006), which were independent risk factors affecting the prognosis of patients. There were no statistical differences among the overall survival rate of patients treated with the three above-mentioned treatment protocols. However, the patients with concurrent chemoradiotherapy had more significant swallowing dysfunction and the difference was statistically significant (P=0.002).Conclusions Most of the HPV positive OPSCC patients are non-smoking, non-drinking and more likely to have cervical lymph node metastasis, but the prognosis is relatively good. Therefore, treatment de-escalation should be considered to protect the swallowing function and improve the quality of life after treatment.