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ORPHA:500478

Squamous cell carcinoma of the oropharynx

high confidenceDisorder

Publications

8,999

98th percentile

Trials

237

Interventional, condition-specific

Researchers

1,597

Distinct authors in sample

Gene link

—

Readiness

2/6

Stages with a signal

Clinical definition (Orphanet)

A rare head and neck tumor characterized by a malignant epithelial neoplasm with evidence of squamous differentiation, which may arise in association with high-risk HPV in a subset of cases. HPV-positive tumors have a strong predilection for the base of tongue and the palatine tonsils and typically present at an advanced clinical stage with cervical lymphadenopathy. They are associated with significantly better prognosis than HPV-negative tumors, which more commonly involve the soft palate, manifest as sore throat and difficulty in swallowing or a neck mass, and occur in older patients. Smoking and alcohol consumption are important risk factors.

How rare: 1-9 / 100 000 — about one to nine people per hundred thousand.

Orphanet entry

Cross-references

Joined from Mondo / Orphanet. MeSH labels may enter searches; UMLS / OMIM / NCIT are stored for reference.

Additional Mondo synonyms (6)

epidermoid carcinoma of oropharynx · epidermoid carcinoma of the oropharynx · oropharyngeal epidermoid carcinoma · oropharyngeal squamous cell carcinoma · oropharyngeal throat squamous cell cancer · squamous cell carcinoma of oropharynx

Research stages

Trial readiness signals

Where this condition sits on an open-data research pipeline — not how close a treatment is, and not medical advice. Empty stages often mean “not in these databases under this Mondo ID,” not “impossible.”

2/6 stages with a signal

An interventional trial matched this condition name on ClinicalTrials.gov — see trials below.

  1. Gene identifiedNot found

    No GenCC disease–gene assertion in this build

  2. LiteraturePresent

    8,999 matched papers (6,491 in last 10 years) Source

  3. Phenotype characterisedNot checked

    Not yet enriched from Monarch / HPO

  4. Animal modelNot checked

    Not yet enriched from Monarch / Alliance

  5. Orphan designationNot checked

    FDA/EMA orphan-drug designation not enriched yet

  6. Interventional trialPresent

    237 matched on ClinicalTrials.gov (64 recruiting in sample)

Biology

Genes and phenotypes

Gene–disease validity from GenCC, plus phenotypes and animal models joined from Monarch Initiative via Mondo ID — not a clinical diagnosis aid.

Do we know what causes it?

Not yet — the cause hasn't been pinned down in GenCC.

No strong gene–disease assertion joined for this Orphanet entity.

Phenotypes (Monarch / HPO)

Not enriched in this build — Monarch phenotype joins were not run for this record.

Animal models (Monarch / Alliance)

Not enriched in this build.

Literature

Is anyone studying this?

8,999

8,999 papers — among the better-studied rare conditions, though still a fraction of common-disease literature (breast cancer: over 700,000). Median papers in the last 10 years for a rare disease in this dataset (publications denominator n=5449) is 41.

8,999 papers since the earliest indexed year in this search — median last-10-year count for a rare disease in this dataset is 41 (publications denominator n=5449).

6,491 in the last 10 years · high confidence · 98th percentile (publications denominator)

Phrase hits: 8,999 · MeSH hits: 0

Open Europe PMC search

Who's working on it?

1,597

Distinct author names in 200 sampled papers — named people below.

Who's working on it?

People publishing on this condition (sampled Europe PMC records). Affiliation is the most recent found in that sample.

  1. 01
    Grønhøj C5 papers · 2026

    Department of Otolaryngology and Audiology, Head and Neck Surgery, Rigshospitalet, Copenhagen University Hospital, Denmark.

    Papers in Europe PMC
  2. 02
    Jakobsen KK5 papers · 2026

    Department of Otolaryngology and Audiology, Head and Neck Surgery, Rigshospitalet, Copenhagen University Hospital, Denmark.

    Papers in Europe PMC
  3. 03
    Routman DM5 papers · 2026

    Department of Radiation Oncology, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minnesota.

    Papers in Europe PMC
  4. 04
    Liu Y4 papers · 2026

    Department of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery, The Second Hospital of Jilin University, China.

    Papers in Europe PMC
  5. 05
    Van Abel KM4 papers · 2026

    Department of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minnesota.

    Papers in Europe PMC
  6. 06
    von Buchwald C4 papers · 2026

    Department of Otolaryngology and Audiology, Head and Neck Surgery, Rigshospitalet, Copenhagen University Hospital, Denmark.

    Papers in Europe PMC
  7. 07
    Wang J4 papers · 2026

    Department of Radiotherapy Oncology, The First Affiliated Hospital of Xinxiang Medical University, Xinxiang, Henan, 453100, People's Republic of China.

    Papers in Europe PMC
  8. 08
    Yin LX4 papers · 2026

    Department of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minnesota.

    Papers in Europe PMC
  9. 09
    Chen L3 papers · 2026

    Department of Radiation Oncology, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, New York, New York.

    Papers in Europe PMC
  10. 10
    Chen Y3 papers · 2026

    Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine Department, Lanxi People's Hospital, Jinhua, 321000, Zhejiang, China.

    Papers in Europe PMC

Clinical research

Is a treatment being tested?

237

interventional trials for this specific condition

237 interventional trials matched this specific condition name; 64 currently recruiting in our sample.

Data as of 27 July 2026

237 interventional trials — more than 73% of diseases in the trials denominator have none at all (5114 of 7003; this disease is at the 99.4th percentile).

high confidence · 99.4th percentile (trials denominator)

Recruiting interventional trials

From the matched ClinicalTrials.gov set

237 interventional trials matched after quoted-phrase search and title/condition post-filter.

Observational and natural-history studies

39 observational studies match this condition. These do not test a treatment and are not counted in the interventional-trial headline, but they are genuine research: natural-history work often defines the endpoints needed for a future rare-disease trial, and families may be able to enroll.

Recruiting or not-yet-recruiting

Open the complete matched search on ClinicalTrials.gov

Where to find support

We do not yet link condition-specific patient organisations. These umbrella groups support undiagnosed and ultra-rare families:

India — NPRD

Last verified 2026-07-26

This ORPHAcode is not on our curated NPRD list (direct or Mondo-parent match). That does not decide clinical eligibility; families in India should ask a notified Centre of Excellence about current coverage.

Hand-curated for this project. ORPHAcode mappings are best-effort and may be incomplete or imprecise for umbrella categories. Parent (Mondo) matches mean the policy lists a broader category — confirm eligibility with a Centre of Excellence. Financial entitlements summarised from public policy statements and may change. This is not official government guidance.

How we counted this

Europe PMC query (preferred label + any corrected label + Orphanet and Mondo exact synonyms, stoplisted; unioned with resolved MeSH labels when available). UMLS / OMIM / NCIT cross-references are stored on the overview but are not added to the query string.

"Squamous cell carcinoma of the oropharynx" OR "Squamous cell carcinoma of oropharynx" OR "epidermoid carcinoma of oropharynx" OR "epidermoid carcinoma of the oropharynx" OR "oropharyngeal epidermoid carcinoma" OR "oropharyngeal squamous cell carcinoma" OR "oropharyngeal throat squamous cell cancer"

Run this search on Europe PMC

ClinicalTrials.gov query (quoted phrases + MeSH via query.cond, plus recall-expansion terms when used):

"Squamous cell carcinoma of the oropharynx" OR "Squamous cell carcinoma of oropharynx" OR "epidermoid carcinoma of oropharynx" OR "epidermoid carcinoma of the oropharynx" OR "oropharyngeal epidermoid carcinoma" OR "oropharyngeal squamous cell carcinoma" OR "oropharyngeal throat squamous cell cancer"

Interventional trials matched via: phrase (mesh = registered under a MeSH descriptor no name phrase would catch; recall-expansion = gene / selected parent terms used only for trials).

Study-type breakdown: 237 interventional · 39 observational · 0 expanded access. Only interventional studies enter the trial headline.

Query health: ok — strategies attempted: phrase; with hits: phrase

Run this search on ClinicalTrials.gov

Confidence reasoning

  • Preferred label is multi-word and distinctive
  • No synonyms dropped by stoplist
  • No label/synonym collisions with other diseases in this corpus

Ingested 2026-07-27T17:42:40.644Z