A new study has shown that a blood test can detect head and neck cancer related to the human papillomavirus (HPV) up to 10 years before symptoms appear. The research was published in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute and offers a completely new way for early diagnosis.
Until now, there was no effective screening test for this type of cancer. As a result, patients often receive a diagnosis only after the disease has already spread throughout the body, making treatment more difficult.
How Does This Test Work?
A team from MassGeneralBrigham used a “liquid biopsy” method. This is a technology that allows doctors to find tiny particles released by cancer cells in the blood. Specifically, they look for DNA fragments that are shed by tumor cells and enter circulation. If the cancer is related to HPV, these fragments will contain the virus’s genetic code. This is called circulating tumor HPV DNA (ctHPVDNA). Researchers used blood samples from the MassGeneralBrigham Biobank. Notably, the samples were taken from 1.3 to 10.8 years before a diagnosis was made. The set consisted of samples from 28 patients who were later diagnosed with HPV-related oropharyngeal cancer and 28 healthy controls. The test detected signs of cancer in almost 80% of cases in advance, and the addition of a machine learning model increased the accuracy to 96%, making it possible to detect cancer up to ten years earlier.
What Can This Discovery Change?
According to experts, this discovery could radically change the diagnosis of HPV-related head and neck cancer. Earlier detection will allow doctors to use less invasive and more effective methods. The study was small-scale, and its findings need to be confirmed in broader clinical trials. However, if the results are replicated, this blood test could become a routine part of cancer screening, significantly simplifying the fight against the disease.
While large-scale studies are still needed, the discovery has already generated great hope that doctors will have a simple and non-invasive tool to detect head and neck cancer in the future.
Official Study:
Das, D., Smith, M. A., & Patel, R. (2025). Circulating tumor human papillomavirus DNA whole genome sequencing in oropharyngeal cancer. JNCI: Journal of the National Cancer Institute, Advance online publication.
