HPV plays a role in the development of head and neck cancers, UofL group confirms

The 2005 introduction of the world’s first 100-percent effective cancer vaccine, Gardasil, focused attention on the role of the human papillomavirus (HPV) as a major cause of cervical cancer.

Now, researchers at the University of Louisville’s James Graham Brown Cancer Center have shown that HPV is present in approximately one-third of head and neck cancer cases studied.

Head and neck cancers account for approximately 5 percent of all cancers in the United States and are more common in men and people over age 50. The American Cancer Society estimates that 35,000 men and women in this country will develop head and neck cancer in 2008.

The research team, led by UofL resident Payal Desai, M.D., analyzed tissue from 43 patients with head and neck cancer of unknown origin. The team was mentored by cancer center director Donald Miller, M.D., Ph.D., and vaccine researchers A. Bennett Jenson, M.D., and Shin-je Ghim, Ph.D. 

They found that 29 percent of the samples were positive for HPV, with the majority being the HPV 16 strain of the virus. These results indicate that current vaccines, which protect against the HPV 16 virus, could prevent a large number of head and neck cancer cases. There are more than 100 strains of HPV, many of which have been implicated in the development of cancer.

“In contrast to earlier research that focused on younger patients who don’t smoke or drink, we looked at patients whose cancer couldn’t be linked to a specific source,” Desai said. “Our results indicate that there may be some interaction between HPV infection and smoking and drinking behaviors that contributes to cancer development.”

Jenson and Ghim are working with Kenneth Palmer, Ph.D., on a second-generation HPV vaccine grown in tobacco plants, which they hope will be less expensive to produce and will offer protection against more strains of the cancer-causing virus.

Desai presented the findings at the American College of Physicians’ 2008 Internal Medicine Conference on May 15.