Noninvasive biopsies may be faster and more effective for diagnosing HPV-associated head and neck cancer

A new prospective, observational study finds that cell-free HPV DNA tests may diagnose HPV-HNSCC more accurately, at lower cost, and more quickly than tissue-based approaches. The study appears in Clinical Cancer Research (doi:10.1158/1078-0432.ccr-21-3151).

According to the researchers, “HPV-associated cancers make up 5% of all cancers worldwide … HPV-HNSCC is the most common HPV-associated malignancy in the United States and continues to increase in incidence.” The goals of the study, says study author Daniel Faden, MD, an assistant professor in the Department of Otolaryngology at Harvard Medical School Massachusetts Eye and Ear, Massachusetts General Hospital, and the Eli and Edythe L. Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard in Boston, Massachusetts, were to compare the diagnostic accuracy of a ctHPVDNA-based diagnosis, combined with routine cross-sectional imaging and a physical examination, with the standard tissue-based clinical workup for the diagnosis of HPV-HNSCC. Additionally, the researchers investigated whether or not ctHPVDNA produced quicker results and lower costs than tissue biopsies using modeling. “This study is the first to evaluate a liquid biopsy-based noninvasive diagnostic approach for HPV-associated head and neck cancer and shows strong proof of principle to support such an approach, disrupting the existing dogma,” says Dr. Faden.