UreA and cagA genes of Helicobacter pylori in Egyptian patients with laryngeal squamous cell carcinoma and benign laryngeal polyps: a cohort study

This work aims to estimate the prevalence of Helicobacter pylori ureA gene and evaluate cagA gene-positive strains in both patients of laryngeal squamous cell carcinoma (LSCC) and those with benign laryngeal polyps. This study included 49 patients confirmed pathologically to have LSCC and 15 patients with benign laryngeal polyps over a period from June 2013 to March 2015. Samples of laryngeal tissue were collected during direct laryngoscope under general anesthesia to be pathologically evaluated followed by analysis for H. pylori detection. Each laryngeal tissue sample was divided into three parts; one for bacteriological examination, the second for pathological examination and the third for PCR to detect both ureA and cagA genes. Out of 49 LSCC samples, 31 (64.6 %) was positive for ureA by PCR. Out of them, 29 samples (93.5 %) were cagA positive. Only three cases (20 %) of the benign laryngeal polyp were ureA positive by PCR and one of them was cagA positive by PCR. By the bacteriological culture, only eight samples (25.8 %) gave growth. All of them were ureA positive and only seven of them were cagA positive. There was a significant association between presence of H. pylori and LSCC as compared to benign laryngeal polyp which may contribute in the pathogenesis of laryngeal carcinoma. These results should be confirmed by further studies over larger number of cases.