Much has recently been written about the benefits of Gardasil, the vaccine which prevents cervical cancer in women. When one takes a step back and thinks about it, this is really quite a feat — preventing cancer by preventing a viral infection! This then begs the question of whether other cancers could be caused by viral infections. The answer to this is yes. Although most forms of cancer are not caused by viruses there are a few types which are caused by the same virus that causes cervical cancer, the human papillomavirus (HPV). We have begun some research into this topic and have discovered that in some people tonsil cancer is caused by HPV. We have also found out that this type of cancer is increasing in the United States but even more so in Colorado.
I have been coordinating a head and neck cancer treatment planning conference for doctors in Southern Colorado for ten years. A few years ago, we started noticing that the rate of tonsil cancer was increasing. We embarked on a study which showed that the tonsil cancer rate had increased 40% in the last 20 years in Colorado and that most of these newer cases were caused by HPV. That was quite astounding news. The research to establish this was performed at the Penrose Hospital Molecular Genetics Lab and entailed the help of researchers at the University of Colorado, Colorado Central Cancer Registry and Memorial Hospital. For this research we have won the Honorable Mention Award for Clinical Research from the Triological Society, the premier research organization in our specialty. The research will be published later this year in the medical journal, Laryngoscope.
The good news for patients is that, although the tonsil cancer rate is rising, the cure rate of this type of cancer is very high. I intend to continue this groundbreaking research in Colorado Springs and look forward to sharing those research results with you in future newsletters.