A new test designed to classify tonsil and throat cancers should help deliver the right treatment to the right patients, according to research being presented at a National Cancer Research Institute (NCRI) conference in the U.K. next week.
The RNAscope test can be done in hospitals and looks for the presence of the human papillomavirus (HPV) in oropharyngeal cancers, according to the institute. Doctors will be able to use the results to classify these cancers as HPV-positive or -negative and offer treatment accordingly.
Researchers at Liverpool and Newcastle universities in the U.K. analyzed 79 oropharyngeal tumor samples for HPV using different techniques and found that the accuracy of classification in the RNAscope test was similar to that of more complex laboratory results.
Previous research has found the risk of death from HPV-positive oropharyngeal cancer to be between 50% and 80% lower than HPV-negative tumors, but patients are usually younger so they may face a lifetime of treatment-related side effects. The researchers hope that, by classifying the HPV status of the cancer, clinicians can offer eligible patients less intensive treatment with reduced side effects.
They also believe it will make it easier to recruit patients for clinical trials, as they can specifically screen patients for HPV-positive or -negative cancers.
