Circulating human papillomavirus (HPV) DNA for diagnosis and post-treatment surveillance of HPV-related oropharyngeal squamous cell carcinoma (HPV-OPSCC)
Role
Chief Investigator
Description
HPV is an established cause of the majority of oropharyngeal cancer cases in Australia, and its incidence is rising. The conventional diagnosis of HPV-OPSCC relies on histopathology via primary-site or nodal biopsy. This has limitations including diagnostic accuracy, health care resource, patient comfort, and time. Histopathology does not provide molecular and genetic information to guide personalised treatment. Despite of its favourable treatment outcome, 15% to 25% of patients will relapse with locoregional or distant metastatic disease after standard therapy. Post-treatment surveillance requires frequent visits to tertiary hospitals and imaging, causing high burden to the patients and costs to the health system. Yet, it has low sensitivity to detect early recurrence of cancer. The detection of HPV DNA in patients’ blood can be used as an adjunct biomarker for diagnosis and surveillance of HPV-OPSCC. Models suggest that using circulating tumour biomarkers for surveillance is more cost-effective. Although PCR-based HPV DNA liquid biopsy has high specificity, the sensitivity is approximately 88-91% [1], signifying that 1 in 10 negative tests are false negative. We aim to establish a highly sensitive method to detect HPV DNA in patients’ blood using capture-based next generation sequencing (NGS) and utilise data for post-treatment monitoring of cancer recurrence.
Date
01 Sep 2024 - 30 Aug 2026
Project Type
N/A
Keywords
biomarker;HPV;oropharyngeal squamous cell carcinoma;NGS
Funding Body
Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Radiologists
Amount
20000
Project Team
Tao (Daniel) Xing;Ludwig Lopata