Study questions rise of Head and Neck cancers in the UK

In the first study of its kind researchers from the University of Liverpool's Institute of Translational Medicine have examined the possible reasons for the rapid increase in incidence of particular head and neck cancers in the UK. A rising incidence of Oropharyngeal squamous cell carcinoma (OPSCC), a type Head and Neck cancer arising in the tonsils, base of tongue and soft palate, has occurred throughout the developed world, and has frequently been attributed to an increasing impact of Human Papillomavirus (HPV). HPV is the name for a group of viruses that affect your skin and the moist membranes lining your body. Examples of this include your mouth and throat and anogenital tract. Collaboration Researchers from the Institute's Mersey Head and Neck Oncology Research Group (MHNORG), headed by Professor Terry Jones and supported by a research grant from GlaxoSmithKline , led a collaboration of 11 UK centres (including all four nations) to determine the proportion of patients with head and neck cancers that were HPV-positive or HPV-negative. Samples and data from more than 1600 patients previously diagnosed with OPSCC between 2002 and 2011 were analysed. The researchers found that the doubling in incidence of oropharyngeal squamous cell carcinoma in the United Kingdom from 2002 to 2011 was not solely attributable to a rise in incidence of Human Papillomavirus (HPV)-positive disease.