Symposium to address prevention, detection and treatment of HPV-related throat cancer

This fall, experts from MD Anderson, the American Dental Association (ADA), the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the University of Chicago Medicine will host an educational symposium focused on the prevention, detection and management of oropharyngeal (throat) cancers caused by the human papillomavirus (HPV).

The symposium comes as a result of the novel partnership MD Anderson and the ADA established to improve oral and oropharyngeal cancer screening and prevention strategies through a series of public and professional education initiatives.

Titled Working Together Against Oropharyngeal Cancer, the symposium will bring together dental professionals, oncologists, surgeons and other health professionals to discuss the latest research on HPV – the leading cause of oropharyngeal cancers – and the importance of HPV vaccination.

“I'm excited to be able to meet with the dental community and work toward educating dentists more broadly about HPV,” says Erich Sturgis, M.D., professor of Head and Neck Surgery and co-leader of MD Anderson’s HPV-Related Cancers Moon Shot™. “The rates of HPV-related oropharyngeal cancers are rising at epidemic proportions in this country, although many of these cases could be prevented by a safe and effective vaccine given in childhood. Greater awareness may also provide an opportunity for earlier diagnosis of these cancers.”

The symposium is on Oct. 18 from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m., immediately preceding ADA 2017 – America's Dental Meeting®. Registration includes 4.5 hours of continuing education credits, a luncheon, a networking break and an all-access pass to ADA 2017.

Participants will also have the opportunity to review updated clinical practice guidelines for possible malignancies of the oral cavity. The updates were completed this year by a panel of ADA members and staff from the ADA Center for Evidence-Based Dentistry, with input from MD Anderson experts. The guidelines are to be published as the cover story in the October issue of the Journal of the American Dental Association.

General dentists make an ideal partner for cancer prevention and screening because they see their patients more frequently than other primary care physicians and routinely perform exams of the mouth, head and neck. Through this and similar efforts, MD Anderson experts hope to strengthen relationships between general dentists and the oncology community, and improve patient outcomes.

Sturgis will be joined at the symposium by several MD Anderson experts, including Lois Ramondetta, M.D., professor of Gynecologic Oncology and Reproductive Medicine, Theresa Hofstede, D.D.S., associate professor of Head and Neck Surgery, Katherine Hutcheson, Ph.D., associate professor of Head and Neck Surgery, and Neil Gross, M.D., associate professor of Head and Neck Surgery.

Additional symposium presenters include Melinda Wharton, M.D., director of the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; Mark Lingen, D.D.S., Ph.D., professor of Pathology at the University of Chicago Medicine; Marcelo Araujo, D.D.S., Ph.D., vice president of the ADA Science Institute; and Dave Preble, D.D.S., J.D., vice president of the ADA Practice Institute.

For more information or to register, click here.