Radiation/cisplatin established as standard of care for HPV+ oral cancer

Combinations of radiation and chemotherapy drugs have been shown to cure HPV-related head and neck cancer with a high success rate. A new Phase III trial has now determined that cisplatin chemotherapy, combined with radiation therapy, produces the best results and should be considered the standard of care. 

“We’ve now established that high-dose cisplatin chemotherapy – in combination with radiation – is the standard of care for human papilloma virus (HPV)-related oral cancers,” said Dr Andy Trotti, a radiation oncologist at the Moffitt Cancer Centre in Tampa and co-lead investigator of NRG Oncology/RTOG 1016. “Prior to this study, there were no definitive, ‘state of the art’ trials in this specific cancer population.”

The number of oral cancer cases associated with HPV has risen over the past several decades, even as rates for other head and neck cancers generally have declined. From 1988 to 2004, HPV-associated oropharyngeal squamous cell cancer (OPSCC) incidence rose more than 200 percent, while HPV-negative disease rates dropped by half.