by Darrell E. Ward For years it was believed that alcohol and
tobacco use was the primary contributing factor in developing
head and neck cancers. Yet, recent studies conducted by Maura
Gillison, MD, PhD, and her team of researchers at Ohio State
have identified human papillomavirus (HPV) as a major factor in
many throat cancers. The team is now advocating for large-scale
international clinical trials to determine the best treatment
options for patients whose cancer tumors reveal an HPV link. The
throat seemed an odd site for a virus linked to cervical cancer,
yet several small studies published in the 1990s reported
finding human papillomavirus (HPV) in squamous cell carcinomas
there. Those early findings intrigued Maura L. Gillison, MD,
PhD, a medical oncologist, head and neck cancer specialist and a
world authority on HPV-associated oral cancer now at The Ohio
State University Comprehensive Cancer Center-Arthur G. James
Cancer Hospital and Richard J. Solove Research Institute. In the
mid-‘90s, she was an o