Utility of Early Post-Treatment Circulating Tumor Tissue Modified Viral HPV DNA Testing in HPV-Associated Oropharyngeal Cancer.

Authors

Scott A Roof, James Jabalee, Eleni M Rettig, Ryan M Sicard, Rocco Ferrandino, Sida Chen, Marshall R Posner, Krzysztof J Misiukiewicz, Eric M Genden, Raymond L Chai, John Sims, Elaine Thrash, Scott J Stern, Bethany Sargent, Noah S Kalman, Sreenija Yarlagadda, John M Kaczmar, Adam Raben, Lydia Clements, Neil Hockstein, Mihir Bhayani, Abie H Mendelsohn, Glenn J Hanna

Published in

Head & neck. Oct 07, 2026. Epub Oct 07, 2026.

Abstract

TTMV-HPV DNA testing is prognostic during post-treatment surveillance of HPV-associated oropharyngeal squamous cell carcinoma (OPSCC), but the significance of testing before conventional 3-month response assessment remains unclear.
We retrospectively analyzed 332 patients across 8 US sites with biopsy-proven HPV-associated OPSCC who underwent initial definitive treatment and had ≥ 1 TTMV-HPV DNA test performed 1 to 89 days after treatment completion. Event-free survival (EFS) was evaluated using a 90-day landmark approach.
The first TTMV-HPV DNA test obtained 1-89 days after treatment was negative in 310 patients (93%), indeterminate in 3 (1%), and positive in 19 (6%). Among 59 patients with repeat testing after an initially negative result, 57 (97%) remained negative and 2 (3%) converted to positive; both patients who converted subsequently developed recurrence. Of 13 patients with an initially positive result and sufficient follow-up for trajectory analysis, 6 (46%) subsequently resolved to negative and none developed recurrence, whereas 7 (54%) remained persistently positive and 6 (86%) developed recurrence. In a 90-day landmark analysis, the last early post-treatment TTMV-HV DNA result was associated with subsequent event-free survival.
TTMV-HPV DNA testing during the 1-89-day post-treatment interval was associated with subsequent clinical outcomes in HPV-associated OPSCC. Persistent positivity identified patients at increased risk, whereas positive results that resolved were not followed by recurrence in this cohort.

PMID:
42844772
Bibliographic data and abstract were imported from PubMed on 08 Oct 2026.

Read full publication at:
Please sign in to see all details.

Stats

1-terrible, 9-excellent. How would you rate this publication? Sign in in to submit your rating.

Post a comment

You need to be signed in to post comments. You can sign in here.

Comments

There are no comments yet.