Table 2.

Oral gargle–tumor biopsy HPV status correlation, overall and by clinical disease presentation, p16 status and tumor location—cases only

	n	Oral gargle median	Tumor biopsy median	Correlation1	p-value2
EPB41L3
Overall	101	1.30	28.33	0.289	0.003
Early disease3	19	1.53	28.80	0.376	0.113
Late disease	82	1.25	27.57	0.268	0.015
p16 positive	88	1.32	28.15	0.279	0.008
p16 negative	8	1.03	32.18	0.355	0.388
Base of tongue	50	1.08	23.27	0.094	0.516
Tonsil	46	1.80	30.22	0.426	0.003
HPV 16 L1 methylation
Overall	101	17.60	58.75	0.430	<0.0001
Early disease3	19	0	41.00	0.575	0.010
Late disease	82	31.30	63.18	0.390	0.0003
p16 positive	88	30.83	60.60	0.435	<0.0001
p16 negative	8	0	0	0.472	0.237
Base of tongue	50	0	54.03	0.465	0.0007
Tonsil	46	51.43	60.60	0.459	0.001
HPV 16 L2 methylation
Overall	101	0	17.16	0.278	0.005
Early disease3	19	0	14.71	0.237	0.329
Late disease	82	0	19.46	0.276	0.012
p16 positive	88	0	19.97	0.288	0.006
p16 negative	8	0	0	-	-
Base of tongue	50	0	16.46	0.235	0.101
Tonsil	46	3.87	18.34	0.303	0.041
HPV 16 E2 methylation
Overall	101	2.12	24.10	0.454	<0.0001
Early disease3	19	0	15.60	0.451	0.053
Late disease	82	4.20	29.84	0.444	<0.0001
p16 positive	88	2.90	28.67	0.471	<0.0001
p16 negative	8	0	15.52	0.571	0.131
Base of tongue	50	0	19.45	0.358	0.011
Tonsil	46	28.13	31.54	0.524	0.0002

p16 was evaluated in 96/101 cases. Tumors originating at sites in the oropharynx other than base of tongue and tonsil were excluded due to sparse sampling (n = 5).

¹Spearman’s correlation coefficient.

²p-value for Spearman’s correlation coefficient.

³Early Disease = T1–2 with only a single ipsilateral positive node <3 cm, or less.