Oropharyngeal cancer is no longer a disease of younger patients and the prognostic advantage of Human Papillomavirus is attenuated among older patients: Analysis of the National Cancer Database

The age at OPC diagnosis is increasing for both HPV-positive and HPV-negative patients, and a rising proportion of older patients have HPV-positive tumors. These findings dispel the notion that HPV-positive OPC is a disease of younger patients, identify a growing elderly population of HPV-positive OPC patients with reduced survival, and have implications for evolving treatment paradigms.