Source: www.medpagetoday.com Author: Michael Smith, North American Correspondent, MedPage Today Patients with cancer of the oropharynx did significantly better if their tumor showed markers of human papillomavirus (HPV), a researcher said. In a retrospective analysis of patients in a large chemotherapy trial, those with HPV-positive tumors had a five-year survival rate of 79% regardless of the type of treatment, according to Marshall Posner, MD, of the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston. In contrast, those whose tumors were HPV-negative had a five-year survival rate of just 31% -- a difference that was statistically significant at P<0.0001, Posner said in a poster discussion session at the annual meeting here of the American Society of Clinical Oncology. The pattern was similar for progression-free survival, Posner told MedPage Today. The two groups were significantly different in several ways, he said, including age, T-stage, and performance status, suggesting that HPV-positive cancers are a different clinical entity from environmentally driven HPV-negative cancers. One possible clinical implication is that patients with HPV-positive tumors might be treated with lower doses of radiation, since they respond well to treatment, he said. "We might reduce the late consequent toxicity (of radiation) - the scarring, the fibrosis, the dry mouth, the osteo-radionecrosis," he said. He noted that patients with HPV-positive tumors tend to be younger, and thus have longer to live with the consequences of therapy. "If we can reduce those effects, we would do a big boon," he said. The finding comes from an analysis of patients who took part [...]