Abstract
Over the past few decades, the incidence of head and neck squamous cell carcinomas
in the pediatric population and tumors associated with oncogenic human papilloma virus
(HPV) has continued to increase. Previously, head and neck cancers in young patients
were considered rare and—only in patients with genetic risk factors, with clinicians
unaware of these neoplasms—occurring with greater frequency in younger patients, and
often associated with HPV infection. This article reviews the viral oncogenic properties
of HPV and Epstein–Barr virus, what the biomarker p16 represents, and the salient
clinical and radiographic features of these tumors. Clinical awareness of these features
is important to identify these tumors and initiate appropriate therapeutic treatment
and to avoid any delay in diagnosis.
Keywords
human papilloma virus - Epstein–Barr virus - head and neck cancer - pediatric patients
