PCR is a good test, but they are old versions of the test that are less accurate. The best test, done at Hopkins and that Gillison does at James, is- in situ hybridization.
I don't talk about it much but some cancer centers, don't even do PCR because of costs. Maura told me that she had come across centers that were dong a brush collection of the cells from the lesion, and then doing a conventional cervical cancer wet prep test for HPV 16. We have no idea if that works on oral tissues or not, and it is the least reliable of any of the tests. Since it doesn't impact treatments today, they are just thinking about costs and not about collecting great data.