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Age at diagnosis, but not HPV type, is strongly associated with clinical course in recurrent respiratory papillomatosis
Journal article   Open access   Peer reviewed

Age at diagnosis, but not HPV type, is strongly associated with clinical course in recurrent respiratory papillomatosis

Farrel J Buchinsky, William L Valentino, Nicole Ruszkay, Evan Powell, Craig S Derkay, Riaz Y Seedat, Virgilijus Uloza, Frederik G Dikkers, David E Tunkel, Sukgi S Choi, …
PloS one, Vol.14(6), pp.e0216697-e0216697
06/13/2019
DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0216697
PMCID: PMC6563955
PMID: 31194767
url
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0216697View
Published (Version of record) Open Access

Abstract

Background Recurrent Respiratory Papillomatosis (RRP) is a rare disease characterized by the growth of papillomas in the airway and especially the larynx. The clinical course is highly variable among individuals and there is poor understanding of the factors that drive an aggressive vs an indolent course. Methods A convenience cohort of 339 affected subjects with papillomas positive for only HPV6 or HPV11 and clinical course data available for 1 year or more, from a large multicenter international study were included. Exploratory data analysis was conducted followed by inferential analyses with frequentist and Bayesian statistics. Results We examined 339 subjects: 82% were diagnosed prior to the age of 18 years, 65% were infected with HPV6, and 69% had an aggressive clinical course. When comparing age at diagnosis with clinical course, the probability of aggressiveness is high for children under five years of age then drops rapidly. For patients diagnosed after the age of 10 years, an indolent course is more common. After accounting for confounding between HPV11 and young age, HPV type was minimally associated with aggressiveness. Fast and Frugal Trees (FFTs) were utilized to determine which algorithms yield the highest accuracy to classify patients as having an indolent or aggressive clinical course and consistently created a branch for diagnostic age at similar to 5 years old. There was no reliable strong association between clinical course and socioeconomic or parental factors. Conclusion In the largest cohort of its type, we have identified a critical age at diagnosis which demarcates a more aggressive from less aggressive clinical course.
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