HPV Infection Linked to Survival in Some Head and Neck Cancers

n Important Twist, Researchers Find HPV-Related Cancers to Be More Treatable

By MICHAEL SMITH
MedPage Today North American Correspondent
Abc News

In what some doctors are calling the most important development in head and neck cancer in decades, researchers have discovered that head and neck cancers caused by the human papillomavirus, otherwise known as HPV, are more survivable than other forms of head and neck cancer.

In a surprising twist, researchers find that throat cancers caused by HPV are more treatable than those that are not.

(ABC News Photo Illustration)

Having an HPV-positive tumor was associated with significantly longer overall survival in two different studies, according to Dr. Kevin Cullen, director of the Greenebaum Cancer Center of the University of Maryland in Baltimore, and colleagues.

The finding also helps to explain why black Americans with throat cancer, otherwise known as oropharyngeal cancer do worse than whites, the researchers said in the September issue of the journal Cancer Prevention Research.Read more...