Patients with HPV-linked throat cancer fare better than others

Patients with cancers of the base of the tongue and tonsils appear to have better survival rates if their cancers are linked to HPV, according to researchers at the University of Michigan Comprehensive Cancer Center in Ann Arbor.

These patients' tumors were the most responsive to current chemotherapy and radiation treatments compared with those that were associated with tobacco and alcohol use, according to results of a study published in the Journal of Clinical Oncology.1

The difference in outcomes “could have something to do with the immune system or tumor suppressor system,” says Dr Bradford, of the University of Michigan Comprehensive Cancer Center.

The study involved 66 patients with advanced oropharyngeal cancer. Almost all of the HPV-positive tumors responded to initial chemotherapy and 78% of those patients survived with their organs preserved. Only 4 of the 15 HPV-negative patients survived. In addition, the latter patients whose tumor expressed a marker called EGFR had worse outcomes, and patientswith low expression of the p53 and BCLXL proteins also fared poorly. These markers all could be potential targets for new therapies, researchers note.

“The biggest challenge is how best to treat patients with tumors that stem from tobacco and alcohol use as opposed to tumors linked to HPV. We now know they're 2 different cancers,” noted study author Francis Worden, MD, assistant professor of internal medicine at the University of Michigan Medical School, in a university news release.