Circulating Tumor High Risk HPV DNA as the HPV-Specific Test in Oropharyngeal Squamous Cell Carcinoma Patients.
A blood test for HPV in oropharyngeal cancer patients offers high confidence when positive, potentially reducing the need for additional tissue testing in clear-cut cases.
Among 236 OPSCC patients, ctHPV DNA (NavDx, HPV types 16/18/31/33/35) demonstrated 100% specificity and 100% PPV, meaning a positive blood test eliminates the need for pathologist-confirmed tissue HPV testing in high-clinical-suspicion cases. However, 83% of negative ctHPV DNA cases still had tissue-confirmed HPV positivity, so negative results cannot rule out HPV-associated disease without biopsy confirmation.
What the study was
- Study design
- Retrospective cross-sectional diagnostic accuracy study
- Population
- Patients with suspected HPV+ oropharyngeal SCC at a tertiary care center (Mayo Clinic)
- Sample size
- 236
- Category
- Diagnostics
- Maturity
- Validated
- Journal
- Head Neck Pathol
Why it surfaced
HIGH by EARLY_CANCER_DETECTION flag. NavDx ctHPV DNA test with 100% PPV and specificity in 236 patients offers a clinically actionable simplification of OPSCC diagnostic workup at a major cancer center. Retrospective limits generalizability but performance is near-perfect for the positive-result use case.
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