Women with HPV-positive vulvar cancer have longer survival

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CANCER DIGEST – Dec. 28, 2017 – An analysis of 18 studies of vulvar cancer involving 1,638 women showed longer survival for women who had been infected with the human papilloma virus (HPV) than women who did not have the infection, say researchers.

The study published online Nov. 16 ahead of the December 2017 issue of the International Journal of Cancer  was led by Dr. Christina Rasmussen of the Danish Cancer Society Research Center in Copenhagen, Denmark. 

The study analyzed data from 11 studies that looked at overall survival and found that the 1,097 women with vulvar cancer who did not have HPV had a 61 percent lower chance of overall 5-year survival  compared to the women with vulvar cancer who were HPV-positive.

Of the 8 studies that analyzed disease-free survival, the HPV-negative women had a 75 percent lower chance of surviving disease-free for five years than those who were HPV-positive.

The researchers concluded that testing women with vulvar cancer for HPV status may be helpful in treatment planning and follow-up strategy. They added that more and larger studies need to be done to determine the prognostic value of HPV status.

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