Oropharyngeal cancer has been increasing in incidence in the United States since 1970, while other head and neck cancers are becoming less common. The factors responsible for this change are: 1) infection with high risk human papillomaviruses (hrHPV) leading to virally-induced tonsil and base of tongue cancers and; 2) reduced cigarette smoking that is beginning to have an impact on the incidence of oral and laryngeal cancer. Most HPV- positive oropharynx cancers respond well to intensive therapy consisting of concurrent chemotherapy and intensity modulated radiation (IMRT). The high response rate (70-80% in most series) and the high morbidity (swallowing problems and neuropathies) of current therapy have stimulated interest in deescalating treatment intensity for HPV-positive oropharynx cancers. Notably, even with intensive treatment 20-30% of the patients progress to lethal recurrent or metastatic disease. The excellent response rates may fall substantially with less aggressive treatment. Thus, it is critical to understand the molecular mechanisms that determine tumor behavior and response to therapy. We will test these hypotheses: 1) we postulate that tumors driven predominantly by the HPV oncogenes, E6 and E7, are those tumors most likely to be managed by low morbidity strategies; 2) we postulate that HPV integration within a cellular gene increases the risk of recurrent and metastatic disease; and 3) we postulate that HPV-positive tumors that have additional genetic aberrations are the most resistant to current therapy and will require alternative treatment. Thus, we are investigating molecular characteristics of the tumor, the virus and the cellular genome of HPV-induced cancers to determine those factors that identify the genetic characteristics that differentiate tumors that progress from those that respond, and to identify targetable molecular changes. We postulate that tumors driven only by the viral oncogenes may be susceptible to a variety of low morbidity treatments. Integration into a cancer related gene may increase likelihood of progression but may also identify a potentially targetable pathway. Tumors with additional molecular drivers or lost control mechanisms may be the most likely to recur or metastasize, but may also have targetable pathways. These concepts can be tested by future trials once the biomarkers are known. In this project we will investigate HPV integration site, viral oncogene expression and alternate transcripts, effects of integration on cellular gene expression, and we will characterize other genetic abnormalities that correlate with outcome. Preliminary data support our hypotheses and from this work we hope to develop individualized treatment most appropriate for each patient with HPV-positive oropharyngeal cancer. We have discovered that viral oncogene-to host cell gene fusions are associated with poor outcome and that transcripts from these can be isolated. In the minority Supplement Dr. Lorenzatti-Hiles will determine the role of these fusion transcripts in cancer progression.
Human papillomaviruses (HPV) especially the high risk HPV16 and HPV18 types are now the most common cause of cancer of the tonsils, in fact there are now more tonsil cancer caused by HPV than there are cervical cancers which have long been known to cause cancer of the cervix. HPV positive tonsil cancers can be cured in 70-80 percent of the time by either combination of surgery and radiation or chemotherapy and radiation, but there are many side effects of these treatments. Doctors hope that these can be avoided by using new low morbidity surgical removal of the tonsils and lymph nodes with minimal radiation therapy. However, since some of these cancers fail to respond to aggressive treatments, it is critical to develop molecular biomarkers that can distinguish aggressive tumors from responsive tumors. We discovered that integration of the HPV virus into cellular genes is associated with worse outcome (i.e. aggressive tumors) than when the virus is not integrated or is integrated into gene poor regions of the cell (responsive tumors). Secondly we found that viral gene?to-cellular gene transcripts or fused virus to host gene messenger RNA are also associated with poor outcome. The goal of this supplemental minority application is to determine the function of these fused messenger RNA molecules and devise strategies to block these as a way to identify high risk tumors and to come up with molecular strategies to inhibit their function.
Showing the most recent 10 out of 21 publications
