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EMAIL: dell@med.unc.edu

PERSONAL WEBSITE: /ent/directory/wendell-g-yarbrough-md-mmhc-facs/

PUBLICATIONS:

I am a surgeon-scientist active in head & neck cancer research for more than two decades. In 2018, I was appointed Chair of Otolaryngology/Head and Neck Surgery at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. At that time, we moved The Head & Neck Oncology Laboratory from Yale to the Lineberger Cancer Center to continue and expand our work on human papillomavirus-associated (HPV+) head and neck squamous cell cancer (HNSCC). The Laboratory has a longstanding clinical interest in the epidemic of head and neck cancer caused by HPV and has made efforts to translate findings into improved understanding of HPV+ HNSCC with the goal of developing new therapies or strategies that can be used to improve patient therapy, as well as to better understand HPV carcinogenesis. Among ongoing projects in the HN Oncology Laboratory, we found that mutations or deletion of NF-飦獴 regulator genes TRAF3 or CYLD correlated with improved outcomes in HPV-associated HNSCC. On the other hand, patients whose tumors lacked these gene defects had survival indistinguishable from patients with HPV-negative tumors. Using an unbiased approach, we have reinforced and confirmed these finding that NF-飦獴 activity distinguishes subtypes of HNSCC with distinct patient survival and molecular characteristics, including HPV integration, HPV and somatic gene expression, and somatic mutation profile. Interestingly, mutations in NF-kB regulators are not prevalent in uterine cervical cancers, which are also caused by HPV suggesting that NF-kB activation may drive an alternative mechanism of HPV carcinogenesis. We are excited by the translational potential that insight into the role of NF-kB activation in HPV+ HNSCC may yield for HPV tumor biology and for potential treatment options.