Radiosensitivity and effect of hypoxia in HPV positive head and neck cancer cells

Although HPV positive cells had a markedly higher radiosensitivity compared to HPV negative cells, they displayed the same relative radioresistance under hypoxia and the same relative sensitizer effect of Nimorazole. The clinical observation that HPV positive patients do not seem to benefit from Nimorazole treatment is not due to inherent differences in hypoxia sensitivity or response to Nimorazole, but can be accounted for by the overall higher radiosensitivity of HPV positive cells.