Thanks for posting this Leslie, I'll have to read it. I saw the proposal last year or so, and a few more times since, here in the news feed also. I believe this was proposed by MD Anderson, but didn't know it was going into effect next month. Most HPV positive oropharyngeal cancers such as tonsil, BOT, Soft Palate, Vallecula will be stage 1, even though it was stage 4 before. Their keeping the T stage, Tumor, with oropharyngeal cancer, but the N, Nodes, is taken from the nasopharyngeal cancer staging.

If mine was HPV Positive, I was never tested in '09, T1N2bM0, would be stage 1A instead of Stage 4A

This will change some treatments for this type disease as some may be over-treated, but not sure if treatment guidelines for smokers with HPV positive oropharyngeal cancer, which disease is sometimes more aggressive, and there are different sub-types of HPV, A&B, and even difference with HPV-16 vs 18, the first which fares better I read, and a few others will reflect any changes.

Canada has changed or have their own new staging system at least proposal going back to 2015 mentioned in the news feed as noted here.

http://oralcancernews.org/wp/researchers-propose-new-staging-model-for-HPV-oropharyngeal-cancer/