Adjuvant therapy for recurrent respiratory papillomatosis

Abstract

Recurrent respiratory papillomatosis (RRP) is a relatively rare disease with potentially devastating consequences for the patient. Its course is unpredictable, ranging from mild disease and spontaneous remission to aggressive disease with pulmonary dissemination and the need for frequent surgery. It can also have a chronic clinical course and cause potentially life-threatening airway damage. A number of alternative medical therapies to standard surgical treatment have been investigated in recent decades, but the results of these studies remain moderate. Recent years have brought significant changes in the incidence of the disease due to breakthroughs in vaccination and prevention of human papillomavirus (HPV) or related pathology. In Poland and many other countries, RRP is not a notifiable disease, hence current data is very limited. It has been accepted to refer to RRP as Juvenile-onset papillomatosis (JoRRP) when the disease occurs in childhood, otherwise it is Adult-onset RRP (AoRRP). This review will present the most promising directions in the fight and prevention of this disease.