Presence of human papillomavirus in tonsillar cancer is a favourable prognostic factor for clinical outcome.

The purpose of this article is to review the current knowledge on the status and significance of human papillomavirus (HPV) in tonsillar cancer. Current data in scientific reports and data from the Karolinska Hospital and Karolinska Institute, Sweden, demonstrate that approximately half of all tonsillar cancer is HPV-positive. Moreover, patients with HPV-positive cancer have a lower risk of relapse and longer survival compared to patients with HPV-negative tonsillar cancer. The favourable outcome for patients harbouring HPV-positive tonsillar cancer cannot be attributed to increased radiosensitivity, since there is no significant difference in sensitivity to radiotherapy between HPV-positive and -negative tonsillar cancer. However, HPV-positive cancer exhibits less genetic instability i.e. shows a lower degree of aneuploidy and a tendency to have fewer chromosomal aberrations, when compared to HPV-negative tonsillar cancer.