Krystle Lang Kuhs, PhD, MPH

Our project focuses on a fast-growing type of throat cancer. Most patients survive, but treatment can cause lifelong side effects. Patients often have trouble swallowing, speaking, and eating following treatment. Right now, we do not know which patients can safely receive less treatment and which need aggressive treatment. We plan to study the virus that causes this cancer. We found that small changes in genes in the virus may help predict how patients respond to treatment and the chances that the cancer will return. We will look at the virus in tumor samples from more than 1,000 patients. We will confirm if viral changes can serve as good markers to guide treatment decisions. We will also create a tool that combines viral markers with clinical information. We will test if this tool can better estimate a patient’s survival before treatment. Our goal is to personalize treatment, reduce side effects for patients with low-risk, and ensure that high-risk patients get the care they need. This project will lead to a clinical trial testing if we can use virus markers to guide treatments to improve quality of life without lowering survival for patients with throat cancer.