NEW YORK (GenomeWeb) – Persistent traces of human papilloma virus DNA after treatment for HPV-positive head and neck cancer is linked to an increased recurrence risk, a new study has found.

Head and neck cancers affect some 53,000 people in the US each year, according to the National Cancer Institute, and HPV has been implicated in many of those cases. In general, patients with HPV-positive tumors have higher survival rates than those with HPV-negative tumors.