Inciting commensal human papillomavirus immunity to combat cancer

Natalie E Fulton; Thomas D Horn; Shadmehr Demerhi

doi:10.1016/j.trecan.2025.04.006

Inciting commensal human papillomavirus immunity to combat cancer

Trends Cancer. 2025 May 1:S2405-8033(25)00098-6. doi: 10.1016/j.trecan.2025.04.006. Online ahead of print.

Authors

Natalie E Fulton¹, Thomas D Horn², Shadmehr Demerhi³

Affiliations

¹ Center for Cancer Immunology, Krantz Family Center for Cancer Research, Cutaneous Biology Research Center, Department of Dermatology, Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA.
² Department of Dermatology, Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA. Electronic address: thorn@mgh.harvard.edu.
³ Center for Cancer Immunology, Krantz Family Center for Cancer Research, Cutaneous Biology Research Center, Department of Dermatology, Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA. Electronic address: sdemehri1@mgh.harvard.edu.

PMID: 40316467
DOI: 10.1016/j.trecan.2025.04.006

Abstract

The incidence of squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) is rising, especially in immunosuppressed individuals, highlighting the need for new prevention strategies. Commensal human papillomaviruses (cHPVs) are associated with cutaneous SCC (cSCC) in immunosuppressed patients. Because of the intricate interactions between T cell immunity and cHPVs in virus-colonized tissues, we propose that enhancing T cell immunity against cHPVs through vaccination could suppress SCC.