Researchers from Henry Ford Health + Michigan State University Health Sciences have been awarded a $3 million grant from the National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research to study new treatments for patients who have head and neck cancer caused by the human papillomavirus, or HPV.

“HPVs cause most cervical cancers and approximately 25% of head and neck cancers, and that number is rising sharply,” said Dohun Pyeon, PhD, professor of microbiology, genetics and immunology and principal investigator on this research. “However, scientists don’t know much about how the virus helps these cancers evade the body’s immune defenses. Our research has identified the MARCHF8 protein as a possible culprit, inhibiting the immune system to kill these infected tumor cells. We want to understand how that happens and how to stop it.”

Pyeon says that HPV-positive cancers often bypass the immune system and other natural mechanisms in the body that typically clear early-stage cancer cells very efficiently. And given that an estimated 600 to 700 million people in the world are already infected with HPV, the number of patients who will need treatment for head and neck cancer is expected to rise substantially.