MONDAY, June 7 (HealthDay News) — For patients battling a type
of cancer that affects the back of the mouth, the chances of survival
increase if the tumor contains the sexually transmitted virus that causes
cervical cancer, new research shows.

In fact, the presence of human papillomavirus (HPV) is the most
important predictor of survival in oropharyngeal cancer, researchers from
the Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center-Arthur G. James
Cancer Hospital and Richard J. Solove Research Institute (OSUCCC-James)
found.

“Previous studies indicated a relationship existed between the presence
or absence of HPV in oropharyngeal tumors and patient survival, but they
couldn’t determine if other favorable factors present in these patients
were responsible for their better outcome,” lead author Dr. Maura
Gillison, an OSUCCC-James medical oncologist and head and neck cancer
specialist, said in a news release.

“These findings close the door on these questions,” Gillison added,
“and will allow the field to move forward with clinical trials designed to
determine how we should use molecular and behavioral factors to
personalize therapy for patients.”

The report was published online June 7 in the New England Journal of
Medicine, to coincide with presentation of the findings Monday at the
American Society of Clinical Oncology annual meeting, in Chicago.

The authors noted that a patient’s lifetime smoking history was the
second leading predictor of survival for this particular form of
cancer.

The finding stems from a three-year post-treatment analysis of tumors
and survival rates among 323 patients diagnosed with stage 3 or stage 4
oropharyngeal cancer, among whom 206 had HPV-positive tumors while 117 had
HPV-negative tumors.

More than 80 percent of those with HPV-positive tumors remained alive
three years after treatment, the authors found, while the same was true
for just 57 percent of those with HPV-negative tumors.

Other potential factors — such as being younger, being white, having
more energy, lacking anemia, and/or having a smaller tumor size —
accounted for just 10 percent of the survival rate differences, the team
concluded.

On the other hand, smoking did register as a serious risk factor for
poor survival chances, for both HPV-positive and HPV-negative patients,
the study found. In fact, the risk for dying from the disease or
experiencing a relapse rose 1 percent for every year that patients had
smoked one pack per day.

The study authors said more research is needed before being able to
discern exactly how doctors might best make use of such survival factor
information when designing a patient’s treatment plan. However, knowing a
patient’s HPV status and smoking history should be considered
central –alongside knowing what stage the patient’s cancer is at — to
any decision-making process regarding which treatment strategy to utilize
and how aggressively it should be administered, the authors noted.

More information

For more on oropharyngeal cancer, visit the U.S. National Cancer Institute.