David - with respect for your advocacy and passion that you have developed for the cause, not to mention your regular aid to others here, I have to ask why you always ask each new person with a positive diagnosis to get tested for HPV. In the future treatment for HPV positive tumors may become different, but it is not now. What are they going to do with the information that they are or are not owners of a positive tumor? For me it wouldn't change anything, I would still retain the same fears and apprehensions, have the same questions about the treatments, and all that goes along with this disease. If you are recruiting people to send tissues to a tissue bank like JH or whatever for future study (they are collecting samples with appropriate demographic data) I would understand that, but otherwise I'm not sure I understand your reason.

I had a long discussion with Dr. Gillison today about many things. Part of this was the social implications of being HPV+. Of course she clearly states that we don't even know for sure if this is a virus that persists, goes dormant, is so ubiquitous that people are just constantly reinfected with it etc. We don't know if it can be transmitted by casual contacts like kissing. All this question might do is give them a why me answer, and even that when it comes to being positive for the virus, still leaves the question... why me?

Sorry to hijack the thread. Please feel free to email me or answer me in another area. If I have missed something important, that newcomers should understand please post it here.