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¹Department of Oncology, Bio IRC, R&D Center for Biomedical Research, Kragujevac-Serbia
²Department of Radiation Oncology, Research Institute of Clinical Medicine, Tbilisi-Georgia
³Department of Radiation Oncology, Haceteppe University, Ankara-Turkey
⁴Department of Radiation Oncology, East Slovakia Institute of Oncology, Kosice-Slovakya DOI : 10.5505/tjo.2019.2079 The last three decades provided new insights into the discovery of the entity related to several strains of human papillomavirus (HPV). The viral cause of HPV, primarily found in the oropharynx, was officially recognized by the World Health Organization in 2007. While epidemiologic studies around the world showed an increased incidence of HPV-related heads and neck cancers (HNC), they also established a photo robot of a typical person suffering from HPV: younger white man, suffering from a nonkeratinized type of squamous cell carcinoma, rarely being seen as heavy smoker and/or drinker. The patient with specific sexual behavior pattern usually carried low T and high N burden, HPV16 being detected in the vast majority of HPV+ tumors, mostly in the oropharynx. It was also recognized that HPV-related cancers seem to have a better prognosis than their HPV-unrelated counterparts. This observation served as an important starting point for clinical studies aiming first to identify different risk groups and then to design various de-intensification treatment strategies which aimed to maintain high success rate with e.g. lower radiotherapy and/or chemotherapy doses while decreasing side effects such deintensified treatment strategies should bring. This review summarizes the most important aspects of HPV-related HNC. Keywords : Chemotherapy; HPV; radiotherapy