Aims: The aim of this study is to quality assure the diagnostics regarding oral HPVassociated epithelial dysplasia, and if IHC staining (p16, Ki-67) can increase the reliability of diagnosing these lesions in addition to conventional H&E staining.

Material and methods: The study included 12 specimens with presumed oral HPVassociated epithelial dysplasia obtained from the Department of Oral Pathology. IHC staining for p16 and Ki-67 was performed by two observers. Analysis was performed regarding histological appearance and the degree of staining. This was scored according to a scale of 0-4 and was analyzed with Mann-Whitney-U test in SPSS.

Results: Histopathological signs was identified that indicated HPV-infection, including increased apoptosis and karyorrhexis of keratinocytes, abnormal suprabasal mitoses and koilocytes. A significant higher degree of staining for both p16 (p<0.001) and Ki-67 (p=0.001) was noted in the sample group. Two specimens from the control group showed a strong p16 positivity, one of which exhibited histopathological signs of HPV-infection.

Conclusion: This study concludes that there appears to be specific histopathological signs for oral HPV-associated epithelial dysplasia and a significant higher degree of staining for both p16 and Ki-67. This indicates that IHC can be used in the diagnostic process of these lesions, to confirm this, supplementation with PCR is needed. In order to be able to draw any conclusions about how reliably this can be used as a possible future diagnostic method, further studies are required, partly on a larger collection of data.