Well, my husband had his tonsils out when he was 10 and he still got HPV-induced SCC of the right tonsil and base of tongue -- there can be residual tonsil tissue after surgery or it can even re-grow somewhat (per our ENT). In fact, it looked to her like an infected, regrown bit of tonsil tissue before it was sampled and the cancer found.

Most of us are infected at some time in our lives by HPV and most of us shed the virus -- but some folks' immune systems fail to recognize or fails to eradicate the HPV (even though it may work fine when dealing with other viruses). Then, in a subset of these folks, the HPV infection can go on to cause cancer -- often after many years (Dr. Gillison told us it could have been 10-15 years since my husband's initial infection).

Gail