New opportunities to decrease the impact of head and neck cancer: uncovering HPV awareness, viral integration, and treatment options in preclinical models

Head and neck cancer is the sixth most common cancer in the world and approximately 50% of patients die of this disease. This thesis investigates several clinical challenges in the prevention and treatment of head and neck cancer. First, it was observed that the knowledge on HPV infections in head and neck cancer in the Dutch population and among Dutch general practitioners was suboptimal. Second, the integration of the HPV genome into the human genome may occur in tumours, but the consequence for the patient is still unknown. This thesis describes a new DNA sequencing method to detect HPV genome integration, that allows further research on the clinical consequences. Third, this thesis identifies several new therapies for head and neck cancer, that show promising therapeutical effects in cell lines. Lastly, tumour cultures show a good resemblance to the tumour and may serve as a tool to select the most appropriate treatment for each individual head and neck cancer patient.