This is really for David and a couple of the other science nerds here. It is part of a huge multinational HPV study, this component heavily contributed to by OCF science board member Dr. Maura Gillison. This is not light reading.

http://www.oralcancerfoundation.org/hpv/pdf/Human-Papillomavirus-Diseases-Upper-Airway-2012.pdf

Hoping to catch a little of the reflected intellectual light off my namesake's acumen I'll have a look at it too, Brian. But on first glance I must say it looks daunting. I can't even pronounce the names of the authors.

Well, I have read it - took me an hour and a half. Very dry!

I have filed the article because it is a nice review of everything we know so far and the statistics are interesting (to me anyway).

In terms of practical use on this forum (ie which treatment should be used, how to manage side effects etc) it won't answer your questions, so I would recommend that unless you are a person who likes statistics, or are going into battle with the various regulatory agencies and payors, you might be best using the hour and a half doing something else.

It IS a great index for every reference to every major paper I have ever read though and this is also a reason for filing it.

Karen,

Can you give me the Cliffsnotes version? lol

Dry.....you should read some tax law articles I have to read!

Brian,

Thanks for always keeping me abreast.

I have to go with DavidCPA on how tax articles and regulations are a lot dryer and complicated than Gillison's study. Especially since you can just read the abstract and get the major points. If you take your time and read it, Gillison's study is well written and understandable. Not so with tax regulations which have multiple subsections and often assume you know the other subsections which they refer to with zero explanation (I'm biased after arguing for over 20 years with the IRS attorneys who write those regs)

What is amazing to me is Gillison's adherence to giving both sides of the argument, marshalling in one place the conflicting studies. If everything does not line up, she says it needs more investigating, like the links between tobacco & alcohol on HPV (unproven either way). So when she does say something, you can count on it like: HPV causes oral cancer in both users and non users of tobacco and alchohol.

But the biggest comfort to me is her conclusion, stated in the abstract, that HPV + patients have at least a 50% improvement in overall survival at 5 years which is equivalent to a 30% improvement in absolute survival.

Thanks Brian for putting this up both on the OCF web and forum
Charm

not to mention no commas, very few full stops (periods) and an awful lot of "and"s and "or"s

Charm, agreed on the Gillison piece. I read it and understood more than I thought I would. And certainly the conclusions you mention stand out.

As for tax law... many years ago in grad school they made us take a semester of it (I was studying arts administration). Even though the professor dumbed it down considerably for us artistic types, I still don't remember a word. Nor, as I recall, did I at the time.

I also took a semester of accounting (this for you David...) and here's what I remember: debits left, credits right. Hmm... or is it the other way around?

Is it sad that I actually enjoy reading about and researching tax law issues? I always look forward to my CPE courses. As it turns out, I now also enjoy reading studies and researching medical information.

In spite of all that, I am still quite a fun person! My friends and family looked at me like I was nuts when I changed my major to accounting. My boyfriend "Cool story, bro" s me when I start talking about work.