I picked up on that too Don, and read a few other reports from the symposium. As Brian mentioned, that's after a recurrence or failure as often say. I read, and Brian knows better, that there were around 181 head and neck cancer abstracts at this symposium, which probably made for an interesting weekend, and reading since, and shed new light on this disease.

I previously understand that HPV postitive recurrences are about 15%, much less compared to HPV negative, but it is still high, to me, if you're in that subgroup like myself.

Another take from this analysis, John Hopkins, states that salvage surgery significantly reduced the risk of death in both groups, but even more so for HPV positive related, so this may change the course of treatment, decisions in the future, when it was previously thought any recurrence was dismal.

http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/821045 (may have to register)

http://www.newswise.com/articles/re...-deadly-when-caused-by-virus-study-shows

Oropharyngeal SCC Survival at 2 years:

HPV-Positive after salvage surgery 72%, without Salvage Surgery 47%

HPV-Negative after salvage Surgery 45%, without Salvage Surgery 20.9%