My husband had a large T3-T4/N0/M0 tumor in the middle back of his oral tongue. He was NOT tested for HPV. He would have lost over 75% of his tongue and the ENT was talking possible laryngectomy, permanent feeding tube, etc. and he opted for chemoradiation from another facility. He finished treatment 1/19/2013 and had a complete response to treatment; he is NED.

I'm saying all this to say I know HPV+ cancers are associated with the oropharynx but he had an old scar on his tongue right where the tumor developed and we think he may have had BOT otherwise. His previous wife had cervical cancer at age 23.

I read an article/paper on Medscape early on that I seemed to remember was from S. Korea from 2011 that said they were finding 35% of oral tongue cancers that were tested were HPV16+. I think if oral tongue cancers were routinely tested as well as BOT and tonsil cancers we'd see a chunk of these cases are HPV+ as well.