print header

Email a friend Bookmark Print this page Help

Science Programmes

HPV and head and neck cancer

Session 1

Cellular Pathology

Selvam Thavaraj, Oral Pathology, King’s College London Dental Institute, Guy’s Hospital

Recent years have seen a striking increase in the incidence of oropharyngeal squamous cell carcinoma (OpSCC) despite a relative decrease in other smoking-related cancers including those in other head and neck sites. Incidence trends of OpSCC indicate that it is one of the fastest growing cancers and this phenomenon is attributable to high-risk subtypes of human papillomavirus (HPV).

HPV-associated head and neck cancer (HNC) demonstrates a distinct site-predilection, clinical profile, genotype, histological phenotype and survival outcome such that there is a growing trend to consider these tumours as a specific subtype of HNC. The biological distinctiveness of HPV-associated HNC highlights the role of the pathology laboratory in undertaking diagnostic tests for the purposes of prognostication, stratification in clinical trials and to inform epidemiological trends of this disease.