Patients with HPV-positive oropharyngeal cancers have a better prognosis than people whose tumours do not contain the virus, research confirms.
Building on previous smaller studies, researchers found patients with HPV-positive oropharyngeal squamous cell carcinomas had a significantly improved three-year survival rate compared with HPV-negative patients.
After adjusting for age, race, tumour and nodal stage, tobacco exposure and treatment, they found HPV-positive patients had a 58% reduction in risk of death.
"Tumour HPV status is a strong and independent prognostic factor for survival among patients with oropharyngeal cancer," the researchers wrote in the New England Journal of Medicine.
On the basis of the findings, patients could be grouped as at low, intermediate or high risk of death depending on four factors:...
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