Medical Student Research Forum Posters

The epidemiology of head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC) has been shifting with an increase in incidence of HPV-associated oropharyngeal HNSCC, which behaves less aggressively than HPV-negative HNSCC. This has prompted a paradigm shift in the newly released 8th edition American Joint Committee on Cancer (AJCC) staging guidelines for HPV-associated HNSCC pathologic nodal classification (counting positive lymph nodes), while HPV-negative HNSCC nodal staging has been largely unchanged from the 7th edition. This study aims to evaluate whether the pathologic number of lymph nodes is associated with oncologic outcomes in patients diagnosed with oral cavity HNSCC.