Human papilloma virus (HPV) causes a type of throat cancer (oropharyngeal cancer) that has an extensive history of fatality in patients, but U of T researchers may have finally found a cure for this disease. This remarkable development was accomplished by Sophie Huang, assistant professor in the Department of Radiation Oncology at the Princess Margaret Centre.
The demographic that oropharyngeal cancer affects has changed in the past few decades. The disease affects older individuals with a history of high smoking and alcohol consumption. However, due to the rise in HPV mainly as a sexually transmitted disease, there has been a 60 per cent increase in oropharyngeal cancer in younger individuals.
Until recently, oropharyngeal cancer was thought to be incurable, with no other option than disease maintenance and palliative care. Huang’s research, however, has remarkably shown that individuals with oropharyngeal cancer due to HPV can be cured even after the tumor has metastasized, meaning that it has spread to many other parts of the body.
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Among oropharyngeal cancer patients, there is a significant difference in those whose condition is caused by HPV and those who do not have the virus. Individuals with the HPV-positive form of the cancer had the more severe form of metastasis, with an increased spread of the tumor, when compared with HPV-negative patients. When these patients were treated with surgical removal and radiation, over 25 per cent of the patients survived after three years. This is a huge improvement on the nearly zero per cent survival rate at present.
Huang attributes the success of the treatment to a number of factors. Firstly, HPV-positive cancers are more sensitive to radiotherapy and chemotherapy. Also, HPV-positive patients are usually younger and have fewer health complications such as smoking related illnesses, that the older HPV-negative patients usually suffer from. The lack of these illnesses allows for them to receive a more aggressive form of treatment.
“This research greatly improves what we know about the role and the importance of HPV in oropharyngeal cancers, and gives hope in improving the diagnosis and treatment to those who are affected by the condition,” Huang says.
For future studies, Huang aims to understand why patients have one form of metastasis over another. Also, she hopes to identify predictive factors to help physicians identify an increased risk factor of oropharyngeal cancer in order to better treat patients. Huang also hopes to revisit current strategies for treatment for those already affected by this cancer and to optimize them further.
As of today, oropharyngeal cancer is the sixth most common form of cancer worldwide, but awareness of it is surprisingly low. Therefore, there are currently limited options for treatment of this disease. Huang and her team hope that this study will encourage physicians to treat HPV-positive cancer cases sooner and more extensively. This study adds substantially to understanding the role of HPV in human disease, as well as the diagnosis and treatment of individuals affected by the disease.
