Amber D'Souza, MS, PhD

Centers and Institutes

• Bloomberg School of Public Health
• Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center

Additional Academic Titles

Joint Appointment in Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery, Joint Appointment in Oncology

Contact for Research Inquiries

Phone: (410) 502-2583

Research Interests

cancer trends, global cancer epidemiology, HPV-related oropharyngeal cancers, infection-related cancer

Research Summary

Dr D'Souza's primary research interest is in infectious causes of cancer. Current research explores the association between Human Papillomavirus (HPV) and oral, cervical and anal cancers, the natural history and concordance of oral and anogenital HPV infection, and HPV tropism.

Dr. D'Souza also has active research programs evaluating cancer screening methods and potential biomarkers. Additional interests include the role of behavioral factors on viral acquisition and persistence, epidemiology of sexually transmitted infections, the effect of viral load and drug use on disease progression, the epidemiology of HIV/AIDS, and infectious causes of AIDS malignancy.

Selected Publications

• *Rettig E, Wentz  A, Posner M, Gross N, Haddad R, Gillison M, Fakhry C, Quon H, Sikora AG, Stott W, Lorch J, Gourin C, Guo Y, Xiao W, Miles B, Richmon J, Anderson P, Misiukiewicz K, Chung C, Gerber J, Rajan S, D’Souza G. Prognostic Implication of Persistent Human Papillomavirus 16 DNA Detection in Oral Rinses for Human Papillomavirus-Related Oropharyngeal Carcinoma JAMA Oncol. 2015 Oct 1; 1(7): 907-15. PMID:26226294.

• D’Souza G, Kreimer AR, Viscidi R, Pawlita M, Fakhry C, Koch W, Westra W, Gillison ML. Case-control study of human papillomavirus and oropharyngeal cancer. New Engl J Med. 2007. May 10; 356(19)1944-56. PMID: 17494927. [Commentary accompanying this article PMID: 17494934; response letters to this article: 17855680, 17874474, 17874473].

• D’Souza G, Westra WH, Wang SJ, van Zante A, Wentz A, Kluz N, Rettig E, Ryan WR, Ha PK, Kang H, Bishop J, Quon H, Kiess HP, Richmon JD,Eisele DW, Fakhry C. Differences in the prevalence of Human Papillomavirus (HPV) in head and neck squamous cell cancers by sex, race, anatomic tumor site, and HPV detection method. JAMA Oncology. In press.

• Fakhry C, Gillison MK, D’Souza G. Tobacco use and oral HPV16 infection. JAMA. 2014; 312(14): 1465-67. PMID: 25291584, PMCID: PMC4266546.

• Gillison ML, D’Souza G, Westra W, Sugar E, Xiao W, Begum S, Viscidi R. Distinct risk factor profiles for human papillomavirus type 16-positive and human papillomavirus type 16-negative head and neck cancers. J National Cancer Instit. 2008 Mar 19;100(6):407-20. PMID: 18334711.