Brick,

I was Tx'ed 3 years ago and HPV was in it's infant stages of awareness and understanding. I was not even confirmed HPV until months post Tx. I was given what was then and to a great extent still is the "standard Tx" for my Dx which was no neck dissection and concurrent radiation and chemo. The chemo of choice was Cisplatin and the method of delivery was 3 doses; first day of rad, 15th day of rad and last day of rad. I was also told that chemo was optional adding about 20% to my rad kill rate.

Sine then some CCC's have switched the Cis delivery to weekly in hopes that it will maintain it's effectiveness while decreasing it's toxicity. There has been one study that attempted to prove/disprove that but it was flwaed in many ways and really didn't prove anything.

Also several studies have been concluded in the HPV arena and they have all indicated that HPV+ SCC is a biologically different disease than HPV- SCC and it, HPV+, responds better to Tx and (therefore) has a lesser chance of recurrence. They, who ever they are, still don't advocate lessening the Tx recomendattions for HPV+ at this time but they do think further study towards that end is recommended. Remember the ultimate goal of the Tx of cancer is to cure the patient with the least amount of damage both short term and long term.

I am surprised that her docs at MDA may have told you that they are unaware of any studies that show a possible advantage of HPV+ vs HPV- SCC. I can send you at least 2 studies that I have.

Get back to me when you get the results.