HPV Linked Oropharyngeal Cancer Rates Rise Dramatically

In the 1980s just over 16% of patients with oropharyngeal cancers tested positive to HPV, compared to over 70% during the last decade, researchers reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology. The authors add that if the rise in incidence continues at its present pace, the incidence of oropharyngeal cancers will overtake that of cervical cancer.

What is HPV?

HPV stands for human papillomavirus 

Oropharyngeal cancer is cancer which develops in the tissue of the oropharynx, the middle part of the throat, including the base of the tongue, tonsils, the soft palate, and the walls of the pharynx.

According to prior studies, oropharyngeal cancers can be divided into:

• HPV-negative cancers - which are usually linked to alcohol and tobacco use
• HPV-positive cancers - which are associated with some types of HPV, a sexually transmitted virus. Those with this type of oropharyngeal cancer are usually younger than HPV-negative cancer patients.

"Patients generally have better survival rates with this type of cancer."

Said senior author Maura Gillison, MD, PhD, professor of medicine and Jeg Coughlin Chair of Cancer Research at The Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center in Columbus, wrote:

"We used to think of oropharyngeal cancer as one cancer, and now we know the disease is comprised of two biologically and epidemiologically distinct cancers. This new understanding will increasingly enable us to improve and better personalize care for patients with each form of the disease."

The team had previously demonstrated that survival rates and incidence for oropharyngeal cancers rose considerably in America between 1973 and 2004, while incidence rates for other cancers of the head and neck, such as oral cavity, dropped during the same period.

They tested 271 archived oropharynx cancer tissue samples from 5,755 patients for HPV infections. The samples came from three registries in Los Angeles, Iowa and Hawaii that had been collected between 1984 and 2004.

Using several molecular assays they demonstrated that the percentage of oropharyngeal cancers that were HPV-positive rose considerably during that period, from 16.3% between 1984 and 1989 to 72.7% between 200 and 2004.

In 1988, there were 0.8 cases of HPV-positive cancers per 100,000 people, compared to 2.6 in 2004 - a 225% increase. As smoking rates during the same period had dropped, HPV-negative oropharyngeal cancer rates dropped by 50%.

By 2020, HPV-positive oropharyngeal cancers will be the major form of cancer for the head and neck, and the leading HPV-linked cancer, overtaking cervical cancer if current trends continue, the authors added.

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