Luo X, et al. - Given the link between lymphocyte telomere length (LTL) and risk of HPV-associated squamous cell carcinoma of the oropharynx (SCCOP) and between LTL and tumor HPV status of SCCOP, researchers investigated whether LTL was related to SCCOP prognosis, particularly in HPV-positive patients after definitive radiotherapy. A total of 564 incident SCCOP patients were included, assessed for LTL and tumor HPV type 16 (HPV16) status before radiotherapy or chemoradiation. HPV16-positive tumors were seen in 85% of the patients. Significantly better overall, disease-specific, and disease-free survival were observed among patients with shorter telomeres vs those with longer telomeres. Moreover, significantly lower risk of death overall, death due to SCCOP, and SCCOP recurrence was observed among patients with shorter telomeres, after adjusting for other important prognostic confounders. Based on the findings, pretreatment LTL could be an independent prognostic biomarker for HPV16-positive SCCOP.