Gene promoter methylation signature predicts survival of head and neck squamous cell carcinoma patients

Clinical trials have been launched to address the concept of treatment de-escalation for HPV-positive HNSCC with the final aim to reduce treatment related toxicity and debilitating long-term impacts on the quality of life.

However, HPV-related tumors are mainly restricted to oropharyngeal SCC (OPSCC) and there is an urgent need to establish reliable biomarkers for all patients at high risk for treatment failure. A patient cohort (n = 295) with mainly non-OPSCC (72.9%) and a low prevalence of HPV16-related tumors (8.8%) was analyzed by MassARRAY to determine a previously established prognostic methylation score (MS). Kaplan-Meier revealed a highly significant correlation between a high MS and a favorable survival for OPSCC ( P = 0.0004) and for non-OPSCC ( P <0.0001), which was confirmed for all HNSCC by multivariate Cox regression models (HR: 9.67, 95% CI [4.61–20.30], P <0.0001).