Source: www.medpagetoday.com/ Author: Michael Smith, North American Correspondent, MedPage Today Human papillomavirus (HPV) infection predicts a better chance of survival in patients with oropharyngeal squamous cell carcinoma, researchers said. In a retrospective analysis of a major radiation therapy trial, more than four-fifths of patients whose tumors were HPV-positive were alive three years after treatment, according to Maura Gillison, MD, PhD, of Ohio State University in Columbus, and colleagues. In contrast, fewer than six of 10 patients with HPV-negative tumors were still alive at the three-year mark, Gillison and colleagues reported online in the New England Journal of Medicine, in an article released to coincide with a presentation at the American Society of Clinical Oncology meeting here. The study follows a report earlier at the meeting that found a similar pattern among patients enrolled in a chemotherapy trial. The virus is, of course, well known to cause cervical cancer. The New England Journal study adds to the evidence that "HPV-positive oropharyngeal squamous-cell carcinoma represents a distinct clinicopathological entity associated with a better prognosis than HPV-negative oropharyngeal squamous-cell carcinoma," said Douglas Lowy, MD, of the NIH, and Karl Munger, PhD, of Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston. Writing in an accompanying editorial, Lowy and Munger argued that if the diseases are distinct, "their treatment or prevention might benefit from different approaches." One possibility, they said, would be to target HPV proteins to treat the disease in some patients, while prevention might involve vaccination against the virus. Gillison and colleagues looked at the [...]