About the Authors

Valentina Lupato

Contributed equally to this work with: Valentina Lupato, Dana Holzinger

Affiliations Department of Neurosciences, Regional Center for Head and Neck Cancer, University of Padua, Treviso, Italy, Unit of Otolaryngology, Azienda Ospedaliera “S. Maria degli Angeli”, Pordenone, Italy

Dana Holzinger

Contributed equally to this work with: Valentina Lupato, Dana Holzinger

Affiliation Division of Molecular Diagnostics of Oncogenic Infections, Infection, Inflammation and Cancer Program, German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ), Heidelberg, Germany

Daniela Höfler

Affiliation Division of Molecular Diagnostics of Oncogenic Infections, Infection, Inflammation and Cancer Program, German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ), Heidelberg, Germany

Anna Menegaldo

Affiliation Department of Neurosciences, Regional Center for Head and Neck Cancer, University of Padua, Treviso, Italy

Paolo Giorgi Rossi

Affiliations Interinstitutional Epidemiology Unit, Local Health Authority, Reggio Emilia, Italy, Arcispedale S. Maria Nuova, IRCCS, Reggio Emilia, Italy

Annarosa Del Mistro

Affiliation Immunology and Molecular Oncology Unit, Istituto Oncologico Veneto—IRCCS, Padova, Italy

Maria Cristina Da Mosto

Affiliation Department of Neurosciences, Regional Center for Head and Neck Cancer, University of Padua, Treviso, Italy

Michael Pawlita

‡ These authors also contributed equally to this work.

Affiliation Division of Molecular Diagnostics of Oncogenic Infections, Infection, Inflammation and Cancer Program, German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ), Heidelberg, Germany

Paolo Boscolo-Rizzo

paolo.boscolorizzo@unipd.it

‡ These authors also contributed equally to this work.

Affiliation Department of Neurosciences, Regional Center for Head and Neck Cancer, University of Padua, Treviso, Italy

Competing Interests

MP is inventor of patents owned by DKFZ in the field of HPV DNA diagnostic assays: Novel Broad Spectrum BS---GP5+/6+PCR for Homogeneous Amplification of Human Alpha Papillomaviruses. Patent EP 2195468, US 8,202,694. This does not alter our adherence to PLOS ONE policies on sharing data and materials.

Author Contributions

Conceptualization: VL D. Holzinger MP PBR. Data curation: VL D. Holzinger D. Höfler AM. Formal analysis: PGR. Funding acquisition: MP PBR. Investigation: VL D. Holzinger D. Höfler AM. Methodology: VL D. Holzinger D. Höfler MP PBR. Project administration: D. Holzinger MP. Resources: D. Holzinger MP PBR. Supervision: ADM MCDM MP PBR. Validation: MP D. Holzinger PBR. Writing – original draft: VL D. Holzinger MP PBR. Writing – review & editing: D. Holzinger D. Höfler ADM MCDM MP PBR.