The Upper Aero Digestive Tract Cancers or UADT (includes squamous cell carcinoma of the oesophagus) Cancer Working Group

Cancers of the upper aero-digestive tract (UADT), which comprise cancers of the oral cavity, pharynx, larynx and oesophagus, account for 8% of all incident cancers worldwide [1]. Over 1 million individuals are diagnosed with UADT cancer annually and more than 700 000 die from the disease each year. The main aims of the EPIC UADT Cancer Working Group are to determine and quantify the role of known and suspected risk factors of UADT cancers, to identify novel risk factors, and to elucidate potential biological mechanisms involved in disease processes.

The Working Group's research efforts currently focus on the role of HPV as a pre-diagnostic biomarker for oropharynx cancer, as part of a broader NCI cohort consortium project on HPV related cancers [2,3]. Future efforts will include analysis of other potential biomarkers for head and neck cancers, as well as their interaction with genetic susceptibility.

Selected publications:

  1. Ferlay J et al. GLOBOCAN 2012 v1.0, Cancer Incidence and Mortality Worldwide: IARC CancerBase No. 11. [Internet]. Lyon, France: International Agency for Research on Cancer; Available from: http://globocan.iarc.fr, accessed on 21/03/2014. 2012.
  2. Kreimer AR et al. Evaluation of human papillomavirus antibodies and risk of subsequent head and neck cancer. J Clin Oncol, 2013 Jul 20;31(21):2708-15. PMID: 23775966
  3. Kreimer AR et al. Timing of HPV16-E6 antibody seroconversion before OPSCC: findings from the HPVC3 consortium. Ann Oncol. 2019 Aug 1;30(8):1335-1343. doi: 10.1093/annonc/mdz138. PMID: 31185496


Contact details/Working Group leader

Paul Brennan, PhD
International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC/WHO)
25 avenue Tony Garnier
CS 90627
69366 LYON CEDEX 07
France
BrennanP@iarc.who.int

Other contact

Sandra Perdomo
International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC/WHO)
25 avenue Tony Garnier
CS 90627
69366 LYON CEDEX 07
France
PerdomoS@iarc.who.int