Mass General Brigham’s HPV-DeepSeek test enables much earlier cancer detection through a blood sample, creating a new opportunity for screening HPV-related head and neck cancers.
Human papillomavirus (HPV) is responsible for about 70% of head and neck cancers in the United States, making it the most common type of cancer linked to the virus. Rates of these cancers continue to rise each year. Unlike HPV-related cervical cancers, which have established screening options, there is currently no test to detect HPV-associated head and neck cancers.
As a result, most cases are diagnosed only after tumors have already expanded to billions of cells, causing symptoms and often spreading to nearby lymph nodes. Developing screening tools that can identify these cancers much earlier would allow patients to begin treatment sooner and improve outcomes.
Detecting cancer years before symptoms
In a newly funded federal study published in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute, researchers at Mass General Brigham demonstrated that their liquid biopsy test, called HPV-DeepSeek, can detect HPV-related head and neck cancers as early as 10 years before symptoms develop.
According to the study’s authors, diagnosing these cancers earlier could increase treatment success rates and reduce the need for aggressive therapies.
“Our study shows for the first time that we can accurately detect HPV-associated cancers in asymptomatic individuals many years before they are ever diagnosed with cancer.”
