Thursday, December 8, 2016
A new study led by a researcher at Consortium member the Masonic Cancer Center (MCC) provides important new information about the connection between human papillomavirus (HPV) antibodies and five-year survival rates for some types of cancer. The paper, "Immune Response to HPV16 E6 and E7 Proteins and Patient Outcomes in Head and Neck Cancer,” was published in JAMA Oncology; it demonstrates that measuring a patient’s immune response to HPV provides a robust prognostic signal, suggesting that in the future a blood serum test for two specific HPV antibodies may replace traditional pathology testing. Lead author Heather Nelson, PhD, MPH, is co-leader of the Screening, Prevention, Etiology and Cancer Survivorship (SPECS) Program at MCC.