Glutathione S-Transferase π Gene Amplification in Oropharyngeal Cancer

Abstract

Head and neck cancers make up about 3% of all new cancer cases in the United States. In addition to the traditional risk factors such as tobacco and alcohol use, recent studies have shown that Human Papillomavirus (HPV) is another risk factor for this type of cancer. Since Traditional prognostic markers such as tumor extent and size are not adequate for risk stratification, clinically relevant and practical biomarkers are needed, especially in the context of non-HPV related cancers, in order to define high-risk patients who might benefit from more aggressive treatment strategies. This project explores the suitability of GSTP1 gene amplification as a biomarker for risk stratification in a subset of head and neck cancers, oropharyngeal cancer (OPC), by evaluating the suitability of a previously established algorithm for defining GSTP1 gene amplification and using that information to evaluate GSTP1 gene amplification status as a prognostic indicator for OPC patients.