Programme

Prof. Pawel Golusinski M.D. Ph.D graduated from University of Medical Sciences in Poznan Poland and finished residency program in otolaryngology at City Hospital in Poznan. He received specialized training in head and neck surgical oncology at Greater Poland Cancer Center and later joined the Department of Head and Neck Surgery Faculty. In 2018  he became a professor and chairman of the Department of Otolaryngology and Maxilofacial Surgery at University of Zielona Gora.

He received PhD at the University of Medical Sciences in Poznan and Associate Professorship at Medical University of Silesia in Katowice Poland.

He has finished a research fellowship in section of Tumor Biology of Department of Otolaryngology, Head and Neck Surgery VU Medical Center in Amsterdam and clinical fellowship  in Advanced Head and Neck Oncology at Queen Elisabeth University Hospital in Birmingham, UK.

His main research interests involve the role of HPV infection in head and cancer and the novel biomarkers for cancer development and prognosis such as circulating miRNAs.  He is  constantly involved in international scientific projects related to head and neck cancer,  e.g Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) Research Project or collaborative projects with multiple institutions worldwide

Head and neck squamous cell carcinomas (HNSCC) develops in the mucosal lining of the upper aerodigestive tract. The tumours are generally preceded by precancerous changes in the mucosal epithelium. Some of these are macroscopically visible as lesions, but most can only be identified in surgical margins by microscopic examination for dysplasia or by genetic analysis. As these mucosal changes are often not macroscopically visible, they may stay behind untreated and cause recurrent disease.

Since two decades it became recognized that human papillomavirus infection causes a separate subgroup of oropharyngeal cancers. These tumours have a more favourable prognosis and during subsequent years it became apparent that one of the reasons for this favourable prognosis was the lack of precancerous fields preceding the carcinomas. This is highly remarkable as in cervical carcinogenesis, these HPV-mediated tumours are preceded by mucosal lesions that can be visualized using acetic acid, and are the main target of the population-based screening programs for cervical cancer.

Most information on HPV-mediated carcinogenesis has been obtained from cervical cancer research, and remarkable similarities between the putative target cells for malignant transformation, have been found. The lack of HPV-associated precancerous changes in the upper-aerodigestive tract, however, remains an enigma. In this presentation the various aspects of HPV-mediated carcinogenesis will be addressed, including a model and some novel insights.

Training in molecular biology and immunology with a Diploma in biology (1995) at the University of Heidelberg and a PhD (1999) at the University of Würzburg, Germany. Postdoc and Senior Scientist (2000-2009) at the German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ) in Heidelberg, Germany, with a focus on inflammation-associated carcinogenesis. Since 2010 Head of the Research Group Molecular Principles of Head and Neck Tumors at the DKFZ Heidelberg and since 2013 Head of the Section Experimental and Translational Head and Neck Oncology at the University Hospital Heidelberg, Germany. Current research topics: Cancer cell plasticity and dissemination, integrative multi-omics analysis, tumor immune microenvironment.

Prof. Vincent GREGOIRE graduated as a Medical Doctor (MD) in 1987 from the Université Catholique de Louvain in Belgium. He was board certified in Radiation Oncology in Belgium in 1994 and obtained his PhD in Radiation Biology in 1996 after a fellowship at the Netherlands Cancer Institute in Amsterdam (The Netherlands) and at MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston (USA).

Since his return from the USA, Prof. GREGOIRE was appointed at the Academic Hospital of the Catholic University of Louvain in Brussels (Belgium) where he was the Director of the Center for Molecular Imaging, Oncology and Radiotherapy, Full Professor in Radiation Oncology, and Head of Clinic in the Department of Radiation Oncology.

From May 1st 2018, Prof. Vincent GREGOIRE is the Head of the Radiation Oncology Dept. at the Léon Bérard Cancer Center in Lyon (France). He coordinates the Head and Neck Radiation Oncology program where the publication of the consensus guidelines for selection and delineation of target volumes brought him worldwide recognition.

Beside his clinical activities, Vincent GREGOIRE has been running a translational research program on tumor microenvironment, on the integration of functional and molecular imaging for treatment planning, and on the molecular basis of increased radiosensitivity in HPV-infected cells. Vincent GREGOIRE has directed or co-directed 15 PhD theses and has authored or co-authored more than 300 peer-reviewed publications and 16 book chapters. He has delivered close to 850 abstract presentations, lectures or teaching seminars worldwide, including award lectures such as the IFHNOS KK Ang lecture in 2014 and the Blair Hesketh BAHNO Memorial Lecture in 2015. He is member of the editorial board of Radiotherapy & Oncology and is a member of numerous scientific societies, including ASTRO and ESTRO, on which he serves on various committees. He has been the President of ESTRO from 2007 to 2009. Vincent GREGOIRE is the past vice-President of the board of EORTC, past-Chairman of the Radiation Oncology Group of the EORTC and of the Head & Neck group of the EORTC. Vincent GREGOIRE was acting chairman of an ICRU Report Committee on “dose prescription, specification and reporting in IMRT”. He has been nominated chairman of ICRU in October 2018. In 2008, he was awarded Honorary Fellow of the British Royal College of Radiology, and in 2016 Honorary Fellow of the Irish College of Radiology. In 2014 he received the Breur Award from ESTRO and in 2015, he was awarded Honorary ESTRO Physicist. In 2018, he received the Jens Overgaard legacy award from ESTRO.

Lyon, July 21, 2021

Clinical Presentation and Outcome of HPV-positive Nasopharyngeal Carcinoma in a North American Cohort; Shao Hui Huang

Single cell RNA Sequencing allows mapping of HPV transcripts in head and neck cancer epithelial cells; Cornelius Kürten

Awareness of HPV-associated oropharyngeal cancer among the general population and general practitioners in The Netherlands: cross-sectional study; Femke Verhees

HPV16 sequence variants and prognosis in HPV-positive OPSCC; Irene Nauta

Lisa Licitra is specialized in medical oncology, with expertise in head and neck cancer treatment. She is Chief of Head and Neck Cancer Medical Oncology Dept, Fondazione IRCCS Istituto Nazionale dei Tumori, Milan, Italy. The Department has a unique focus on medical treatment of head and neck cancer pts with special expertise in HPV related tumor testified by the high impacted published papers in this field.

She is a Associated Professor at Università degli Studi di Milano, since 2009, chairing courses of Oncology in the Medical School and in Master of Biotechnology, Psycho-oncology, Pharmacology, International Medical School, Ear Nose Throat Specialty.

Since 2019, she is the Scientific Director of the Italian National Center for Oncological Hadrontherapy.

Board Member of EORTC – European Organization for the Research and Treatment of Cancer (2009- 2015) and 2018-2021 Vice President. Chair of Head and Neck Cancer Cooperative Group of EORTC for 3 years, at present Past Chair and Secretary of the EORTC Thyroid Task Force. Co-founder and member of the European Head and Neck Cancer Society. She acted as member of The Educational Committee of ESMO (European Society for Medical Oncology), the Clinical Editorial Board of Oral Oncology and the UICC TNM Staging Committee. Honorary Member of ESTRO European Society of Radiation Oncology. She is chair of G7 Domain in EURACAN.

Recipient of the Venosta AIRC/FIRC award. She won the ESMO Award in 2021.

She is author of 384 papers on peer-reviewed journals and her H-index is 63 (Scopus).

Tim Waterboer is a trained virologist and epidemiologist, and has been working on HPV-driven head and neck cancer for 20 years. He is particularly interested in using HPV early antigen serology for screening and early detection of HPV-driven oropharyngeal cancer.

Rieneke van de Ven, PhD is tumor immunologist leading the tumor immunology research within the Head and neck Cancer Biology & Immunology (HNCBI) laboratory at the department of Otolaryngology|Head and Neck surgery within Amsterdam UMC. She obtained her Master degree in Biomedical Sciences from the University of Amsterdam. In 2009 she was awarded the PhD title by the VU University Medicine Faculty, Amsterdam. After postdoctoral training in the USA and NL, she joined the HNCBI-lab in 2018, focusing her research on characterizing the tumor immune microenvironment of head and neck cancers, with the aim to optimize immunotherapy treatments for patients.

Combination immunotherapy of cancers caused by high risk HPV16
Anna-Sophia Wiekmeijer, Isa Pharmaceuticals

Therapeutic DNA-enabled Immunotherapies for the treatment of HPV diseases
Chris Shepherd , Senior Vice President of Clinical Development, Inovio

Arenaviral Vectors Impacting HPV16+ HNSCC
Klaus Orlinger and Corrine Iacobucci, Hookipa Biotech GmbH

Maura Gillison, MD, PhD, is Professor of Medicine and a CPRIT scholar at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center. She is a head and neck medical oncologist and molecular epidemiologist. Her laboratory focuses on the role of human papillomavirus (HPV) infection in head and neck malignancies. Her work ranges from cohort studies of oral HPV infection to genetic indicators of response to chemoradiotherapy and immunotherapy.

Dr. Gillison is a physician scientist who has made significant contributions to the identification of human papillomavirus as a cause of a distinct subset of head and neck cancer, resulting in a paradigm shift in concepts for risk, diagnosis and therapy of head and neck cancer. As a doctorate-level trained molecular epidemiologist and medical oncologist with expertise in head and neck cancer, she currently investigate the implications of her findings for primary and secondary prevention strategies, diagnostics, prognostics, genomics, molecular and immune-therapeutics, clinical decision making and population-level cancer incidence trends in the United States and worldwide.

Dr. Gillison earned her MD from the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, then served successively as a postdoctoral fellow at the Johns Hopkins Hospital, as a medical resident at Massachusetts General Hospital, and as a clinical fellow and later as a senior clinical fellow in oncology at Johns Hopkins before earning her PhD from that University’s School of Hygiene and Public Health. She rose to the rank of Associate Professor at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine before serving for eight years as the Jeg Coughlin Chair of Cancer Research at The Ohio State University until moving to MD Anderson.

Dr Gillison is supported by grants from CPRIT and has published extensively in such prestigious journals as The New England Journal of Medicine, Lancet, The Journal of the American Medical Association, and Journal of Clinical Oncology. She has received the Giants of Cancer Care Award in Translation and the David Karnovsky Award from ASCO in 2021. She is a member of ASCI, the Association of American Physicians and the National Academy of Medicine.

Terry Jones

Professor of Head and Neck Surgery, Department of Molecular and Clinical Cancer Medicine,

University of Liverpool

Director, Liverpool Head and Neck Centre

Director of Research and Innovation, Liverpool University Hospital NHS Foundation Trust

Lead, Genomics England H&N GeCIP

Honorary Consultant Otolaryngologist / Head and Neck Surgeon

Liverpool University Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, Liverpool, UK

My main clinical interests relate to function-sparing cancer surgery. In particular, transoral laser microsurgery (TLM).

My research interests can be divided into four main themes

1. Basic/translational research: including the biology of the differential treatment response seen between HPV+ve and –ve oropharyngeal squamous cell carcinomas.
2. Early and late phase Clinical Trials: Joint Chief Investigator respectively for three CR-UK funded H&N studies: PATHOS, PATHOS-T & EORTC 1420 and co –investigator for the CR-UK funded PROTIS clinical trial.
3. Clinical outcomes research: with a particular interest in swallowing and voice outcomes following TLM
4. Cancer Inequalities: and their impact on incidence and outcome for patients with head and neck cancer

Maura Gillison, MD, PhD, is Professor of Medicine and a CPRIT scholar at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center. She is a head and neck medical oncologist and molecular epidemiologist. Her laboratory focuses on the role of human papillomavirus (HPV) infection in head and neck malignancies. Her work ranges from cohort studies of oral HPV infection to genetic indicators of response to chemoradiotherapy and immunotherapy.

Dr. Gillison is a physician scientist who has made significant contributions to the identification of human papillomavirus as a cause of a distinct subset of head and neck cancer, resulting in a paradigm shift in concepts for risk, diagnosis and therapy of head and neck cancer. As a doctorate-level trained molecular epidemiologist and medical oncologist with expertise in head and neck cancer, she currently investigate the implications of her findings for primary and secondary prevention strategies, diagnostics, prognostics, genomics, molecular and immune-therapeutics, clinical decision making and population-level cancer incidence trends in the United States and worldwide.

Dr. Gillison earned her MD from the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, then served successively as a postdoctoral fellow at the Johns Hopkins Hospital, as a medical resident at Massachusetts General Hospital, and as a clinical fellow and later as a senior clinical fellow in oncology at Johns Hopkins before earning her PhD from that University’s School of Hygiene and Public Health. She rose to the rank of Associate Professor at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine before serving for eight years as the Jeg Coughlin Chair of Cancer Research at The Ohio State University until moving to MD Anderson.

Dr Gillison is supported by grants from CPRIT and has published extensively in such prestigious journals as The New England Journal of Medicine, Lancet, The Journal of the American Medical Association, and Journal of Clinical Oncology. She has received the Giants of Cancer Care Award in Translation and the David Karnovsky Award from ASCO in 2021. She is a member of ASCI, the Association of American Physicians and the National Academy of Medicine.

The course of health-related quality of life from diagnosis to two years follow-up in patients with oropharyngeal cancer: does HPV status matter? Laura H.A. Korsten

Ninety-day Mortality following TORS or Definitive Radiotherapy for Oropharyngeal Cancer at American Commission on Cancer-Accredited Facilities; James Bates

Detection and Monitoring of Circulating Tumor HPV DNA in HPV-Associated Sinonasal and Nasopharyngeal Cancers; Daniel Faden

Dr. Fakhry holds the Charles W. Cummings, M.D. Professor, serves as Executive Vice Director of the Department of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery, Chief of the Division of Head and Neck Surgery, and Director of the Head and Neck Cancer Center. She is a Professor in the Departments of Otolaryngology Head and Neck Surgery, Oncology and the Bloomberg School of Public Health Department of Epidemiology.

Her research interest focuses on the role of human papillomavirus (HPV) in head and neck squamous cell cancer. She has demonstrated that the presence of HPV confers a prognostic advantage to individuals with oropharyngeal cancer and that HPV is associated with unique clinical characteristics. In addition to her interest in the clinical implications of HPV in head and neck cancer, she is co-principal investigator of a large study to understand screening individuals at “high-risk” of malignancy and evaluating imaging modalities to improve diagnostics and early detection of HPV- related head and neck cancer.

After an undergraduate degree at Stanford University, Dr. Fakhry completed her medical school, residency in otolaryngology head and neck surgery and fellowship in head and neck surgical oncology at Johns Hopkins. She has also received a master’s in public health from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.

A dedicated educator and mentor, Dr. Fakhry has mentored numerous trainees. Her clinical teaching has been recognized by receipt of the George Nager Teaching Award. Dr. Fakhry serves in leadership roles for the department, the institution, and regional and national professional societies. She is director of the head and neck group in the Bloomberg~Kimmel Institute for Cancer Immunotherapy, and the head and neck surgical oncology fellowship. She is associate editor for Oral Oncology and Cancer and serves on several editorial boards. She is currently the co-chair of the National Cancer Institute’s Head and Neck Steering Committee.

Differences between HPV positive and HPV negative oropharyngeal cancer detected by Non-Gaussian IVIM; Iris Lauwers

Loss of LRP1B expression drives chemo and radiation resistance in HPV-positive head and neck cancer; Mushfiq Shaikh

Proximity ligation-based sequencing for mapping viral integration sites in human papillomavirus positive head and neck squamous cell carcinomas; Imke Demers

HPV16+ OPSCC patients display an overall longer survival and a lower recurrence rate after standard of care treatment than HPV- patients.  Because the composition of the tumor immune microenvironment (TIME) associated with good prognosis generally also predicts the success of immunotherapy, we started  to analyze an unique prospective cohort of HPV- and HPV+  OPSCC patients. We found that clinical outcome is strongly linked to the presence of HPV-specific CD4+ and CD8+ tumor infiltrating lymphocytes (TIL) during >10 years follow-up. New evidence, suggests that immunity is not only targeted at the E6 and E oncoproteins but may also involve the E2 protein. Subsequently, we performed a comprehensive multimodal, high-dimensional strategy to dissect the TIME of treatment-naïve IR+ and IR− OPSCC tissue, including bulk RNA sequencing, imaging mass cytometry and combined single-cell gene expression profiling and T-cell receptor of TIL. This revealed that IR+ tumors expressed higher levels of genes strongly related to interferon gamma signaling, T-cell activation, TCR-signaling, and mononuclear cell differentiation, as well as several immune signaling pathways, than IR− patients, specifically related to ectopic lymphoid structure development. Moreover, scRNAseq identified a subset of clonally expanded CD8+ T cells, dominantly present in IR+ tumors, which secreted T-cell and DC-attracting chemokines. Immune cell infiltration in IR+ tumors is stronger, highly coordinated, and has a distinct spatial phenotypical signature characterized by intra-tumoral microaggregates of CD8+CD103+ and CD4+ T-cells with DCs. In contrast, the IR− TIME comprised spatial interactions between lymphocytes and various immunosuppressive myeloid cell populations, which differed per patient. The impact of these results are discussed in view of our previous and current trials with (combinations of) therapeutic vaccination and checkpoint strategies.

Professor Hisham Mehanna is a Deputy Pro-Vice Chancellor, Chair of Head and Neck Surgery, and Director of the Institute of Head and Neck Studies and Education, at the University of Birmingham, UK.

Hisham’s clinical interests are recurrence head and neck cancer surgery. Prof Mehanna established and ran the UK’s first clinic dedicated to the multi-disciplinary treatment of head and neck and thyroid cancer recurrence.

Hisham has a keen interest in clinical and translational research,. His main area of his research resolves around improving the management of head and neck cancer through the use of innovative treatments and dynamic risk stratification and assessment.

Role of the PuraBond haemostatic agent in Trans oral Robotic surgery – A case series; Mriganka De

Early detection of recurrent HPV-positive HNSCC by ctDNA analysis; Annouk Pierik

Education

01/1996-03/1998  Postdoctoral Fellow

Department of Tumor Biology

The University of Texas M.D.Anderson Cancer Center,                                                            Houston, Texas, USA (D. Boyd, Ph.D.)

03/1998 Approbation

03/1998-05/2002 Residency in Oto-rhino-laryngology in the Department of Otolarnygology – Head and Neck Surgery, University of Tuebingen

05/2002 Facharzt, Oto-rhino-laryngology (Hals-, Nasen-, Ohrenheilkunde)

9/2002-7/2003  Clinical Fellowship, Head and Neck Surgical Oncology

Department of Head and Neck Surgery The University of Texas M.D.Anderson Cancer Center,  Houston, Texas, USA

9/2003-7/2004  Clinical Fellowship, Head and Neck Microvascular                                         Reconstruction and endoscopic laser surgery

Department of Otolaryngology, Head and Neck Surgery

Washington University in St. Louis, St. Louis, Missouri, USA

7/2008-7/2009  Clinical Fellowship, Otology and Neuro-otology University of Minnesota  Paparella Ear Head and Neck Institute, Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA

Professional and academic

experience

7/2004-4/2005  Instructor, Department of Otolarnygology – Head and Neck Surgery, University of Tuebingen (Prof. Dr. H.P. Zenner)

04/2005 – 02/2012         Consultant Surgeon (Oberarzt), Department of Otolarnygology – Head and Neck Surgery, University of Heidelberg

06/2006 Venia legendi (Priv. Doz.): The role of the ERK-and p38-pathway for invasion and metastasis of malignant head and neck tumors.

07/2009 – 02/2012 Vice chairman (Geschäftsführender Oberarzt)

Department  of Otolarnygology – Head and Neck Surgery, University of Heidelberg

Since 02/2012    Professor and Chairman of the Department of Otolaryngology – Head and Neck Surgery, University Medical Center Vaud (CHUV), University of Lausanne (UNIL)

Professor Hans Langendijk completed his residency in radiation oncology in 1997. From 1997 to 2004, he worked at the Department of Radiation Oncology of the VU University Medical Center. During that period, he became specialised in head and neck radiation oncology. Since October 2004, he is professor and chair of the Department of Radiation Oncology of the University Medical Center Groningen. His special interests are head and neck oncology, prediction, prevention and treatment of radiation-induced side effects and methodologies to develop and validate new radiation techniques, such as proton therapy.

Dr. Hinrichs is a physician-scientist specializing in medical oncology and tumor immunology, He has pioneered the discovery and development of adoptive T cell therapy for HPV-associated cancers. He previously served as Tenured Senior Investigator at the US National Cancer Institute in Bethesda, Maryland and now serves as Tenured Professor at Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School and Co-director of the Duncan and Nancy MacMillan Cancer Immunology and Metabolism at Rutgers Cancer Institute of New Jersey.

Deciphering Knowledge and Opinions of HPV and HPV Vaccination for Facilitation of Point-of-Care Vaccination; Daniel Faden

Nodal involvement determines the initial quantity of circulating free HPV16 DNA in patients with HPV-related oropharyngeal cancer; Tomasz Rutkowski

The tumor immune microenvironment of HPV-negative and HPV-positive oropharynx squamous cell carcinomas; Tara Muijlwijk

5-slide Pitch Hans Berkhof: Preventive vaccination, also in treated OPSCC patients?
5-slide Pitch Tim Waterboer: HPV serology for screening
5-slide Pitch Ingeborg Tinhofer-Keilholz: HPV DNA assays for screening

Wojciech Golusiński M.D. Ph.D.

Chair of the Department of Head and Neck Surgery of the Poznań University of Medical Sciences at the Greater Poland Cancer Centre. President of the European Head and Neck Society (term 2018-23).

He is the initiator and founder of the Polish Head and Neck Society – an interdisciplinary scientific society. For the past 3 years he has been President of the European Head and Neck Society – the largest European scientific society (over 2900 members), bringing together representatives of all specialties that carry out diagnosis, treatment and rehabilitation of patients with head and neck cancer. Co-author of European recommendations on diagnosis and treatment of head and neck cancer, prepared by members of three societies: EHNS, ESTRO and ESMO. Author of over 300 papers, reports and lectures published in Polish and foreign journals. They focus primarily on diagnosis, treatment and prevention of head and neck cancer. His special interests are expressed in publications on the role of HPV virus in cancers of the oropharynx as well as genetic and molecular studies evaluating the biology of head and neck cancer. His other research activities include head and neck surgery with special emphasis on reconstructive capabilities after extensive surgery, endoscopic surgery and robotic surgery. Prof. Wojciech Golusiński is the initiator, author and organizer of the National Head and Neck Cancer Prevention Program. In 2016 he was appointed to the position of Expert in Head and Neck Cancers by the Polish Ministry of Health. For many years now he has been the most recognizable Polish ENT surgeon dealing with head and neck cancer treatment in Europe.