 Senior Patient Advocate Patient Advocate (old timer, 2000 posts)
Joined: Sep 2006 Posts: 8,311 | Sherrone, That's the problem I encountered 4 years ago and it's still prevalent and that is there is way too many ENT's and front line practitioners that are not "up" on what's been current on the oral cancer front for years, especially regarding HPV's proven connection. While smoking and tobacco use has been on a steady decline for the past 10 years we have seen an increase in oral cancer cases and that increase has been associated with HPV related oral cancer. We are also seeing what I call a new patient type and that is one that is a non smoker, younger than the HPV types but they are not HPV+. Especially in the U.S. these 3 categories pretty much make up what wee see today in oral cancer cases.
David
Age 58 at Dx, HPV16+ SCC, Stage IV BOT+2 nodes, non smoker, casual drinker, exercise nut, Cisplatin x 3 & concurrent IMRT x 35,(70 Gy), no surgery, no Peg, Tx at Moffitt over Aug 06. Jun 07, back to riding my bike 100 miles a wk. Now doing 12 Spin classes and 60 outdoor miles per wk. Nov 13 completed Hilly Century ride for Cancer, 104 miles, 1st Place in my age group. Apr 2014 & 15, Spun for 9 straight hrs to raise $$ for YMCA's Livestrong Program. Certified Spin Instructor Jun 2014.
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