A
new study explored the effects of joint exposure impacts of smoking and HPV
infection on oropharyngeal cancer risk. Specifically, the investigators studied
if smoking confers any additional risk to HPV-positive oropharyngeal cancer.
Anantharamanet al. examined the interaction between smoking and HPV16 in 1904 cancer
patients and 3024 control from two large European multi-center studies. They
observed that both smoking and HPV seropositivity were independently associated
with oropharyngeal cancer. The joint association of smoking and HPV infection
was additive suggesting they act as independent risk factors
for oropharyngeal cancer.
An
additional observation was that the prevalence of oropharyngeal cancer
increases with smoking for both HPV16-positive and HPV16-negative persons.
The authors
concluded that the impact of smoking on HPV16-positive oropharyngeal cancer
highlights the continued need for smoking cessation programs for primary
prevention of head and neck cancer.
