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University of Maryland Marlene and Stewart Greenebaum Cancer Center

Groundbreaking Study Suggests that Low HPV Infection Rates May Be Linked to Poor Head and Neck Cancer Survival Rates in Blacks

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Overview:

Researchers at the University of Maryland Marlene and Stewart Greenebaum Cancer have found that head and neck cancer patients who test positive for the human papillomavirus (HPV) have much better survival rates than patients who don’t have the virus, according to a new study in the journal Cancer Prevention Research. The researchers also discovered that blacks in the study had a very low rate of HPV infection, and consequently worse survival, which may explain why African-American patients traditionally have had a poor prognosis for head and neck cancer.

“For the first time, we have evidence that the major difference in survival between black and white patients with head and neck cancer appears to be the rate of HPV infection. We found an astounding difference in prognosis between patients who are HPV-positive and those who are HPV-negative,” says the study’s senior author, Kevin J. Cullen, M.D., director of the University of MarylandGreenebaum Cancer Center and professor of medicine at the University of Maryland School of Medicine.

The study results were published in Cancer Prevention Research, a journal of the American Association for Cancer Research.

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This page was last updated on: July 28, 2009.

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