They can test a sample taken at the time of the surgery, it is not expensive, and is a common test. If they are not capable of doing the testing it can be sent to an outside lab like the one a Johns Hopkins, and they will do it for them.

By the by, no one got my respected friend David and I going again, a search of the boards will find that we have this argument as a matter of routine about every 6 months when it comes up. I suspect that even as a science based thinker, I am less pragmatic about this than David. As long as this thing is in my review mirror, I just don't care. I don't think about it anymore than why I was a survivor in Vietnam when other better people didn't make it, nor why I survived helicopter and plane crashes that others did not. Dwelling on those things or the cause of my disease (I know, but not because I went looking) I find little purpose in, and for the most part I try to stay focused on my future. When I am an old man reflecting on the past, (hell I'm already and old man, but I mean sitting on the park bench feeding pigeons) perhaps I'll reflect on the fortunes and misfortunes of the various cards I've been dealt, how I played them, the choices that I made, the randomness of some of it, and the why of it all. For now I am too busy, to be exploring something that the answer to, will not change my behaviors or life. It does make me a bit more interesting to TV crews, when I talk about my sex life and HPV though.... It's a useful tool in my life as an advocate for the cause. But that is an application of the information that most would not have a use for.


Brian, stage 4 oral cancer survivor. OCF Founder and Director. The first responsibility of a leader is to define reality. The last is to say thank you. In between, the leader is a servant.