Genetic Landscape of Human Papillomavirus-Associated Head and Neck Cancer and Comparison to Tobacco-Related Tumors.

ABSTRACT: Head and neck cancer is the fifth most common cancer worldwide. It is often amenable to curative intent therapy when localized to the head and neck region, but it carries a poor prognosis when it is recurrent or metastatic. Therefore, initial treatment decisions are critical to improve patient survival. However, multimodality therapy used with curative intent is toxic. The balance between offering intensive versus tolerable and function-preserving therapy has been thrown into sharp relief with the recently described epidemic of human papillomavirus-associated head and neck squamous cell carcinomas characterized by improved clinical outcomes compared with smoking-associated head and neck tumors. Model systems and clinical trials have been slow to address the clinical questions that face the

SUBMITTER: Hayes DN 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4586167 | biostudies-literature | 2015 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature