So, being someone who has dealt with a "mild" cancer (stage 0 melenoma, spitzoid type; not caused by sun exposure) myself, I know how frustrating hypochondriacs can be, especially to cancer forums. Thus, I would like to start by saying I promise I am not one of those people who worry about every little thing, and this post is more or less just an uncertain post. If anyone understands the fear of uncertainty, I'm convinced it has to be fine brave people such as yourselves. I can certainly understand the "problem" with posts began by those who have not actually been diagnosed. I will start by saying that I am merely 20 years old, and have been dedicated to studying cancer, particularly pediatric, so I know more than any 20 year old should because I am quite passionate about this disease and study outside the classroom as much as inside. I attend UNCW (junior) in Wilmington NC, and am in the midst of having another cancer scare, this one, of course, cancer of the oropharynx. My story begins a few months ago when I had a bad spell of what seemed to be tonsillitis, in which I nearly completely lost my voice. The infection seemed to clear itself (I'm not one to go to the doctor because I always think I can diagnose myself :p), that is until it recurred, twice. Around the second recurrence, I noticed a small area directly above the palatine tonsils where a large crypt is located (on the tonsillar pillars), that seemed to be getting "infected". Well at some point within the next couple of days the small oval shaped area swelled up into what looks like at some angles a lesion, and merely an area of localized inflammation in others. What I do know is in this area of inflammation there is one large crypt and smaller less "deep" crypts, giving the idea that the crypts could be trapping bacteria. I saw my GP about it and he seemed to pass it off the first time, however upon this last visit he said it never hurts to get a second opinion, from an ENT, and gave me a choice to receive a referral if id like. I opted to get a referral, and I will see the ENT this Friday. Well in the mean time, I couldn't help but engage with a professor in a little HPV+ Head and Neck SCC talk. This was really a bad idea needless to say because I learned that the tonsillar crpyts are typically where malignant transformation takes place when the HPV 16 virus is present in SCC. My only other symptoms are mild discomfort in that specific area of my tonsil from time to time, no node involvement or anything like that. Just as a side note I did recieve a guardasil treatment when I was 17, but this past year I was in a sexually active (yes "orally" as well; tmi right?) relationship with my now ex girlfriend who later informed me that a relatively short period of time before we were sexually active together, she recieved a dx of dysplasia (cervical precancer) in her cervix. Before we became sexually active her doctor said she got clear results, meaning the infection was dormant at that time. So I just want to get an idea of the kind of symptoms that some of you HPV Positive folks had prior to an actual pathology report following a biopsy. I cannot begin to stress how grateful I am for any responses I receive, and I am sorry for the long post, but I just thought that this was the most informative answer I could get on the clinical symptoms of HPV+ tumors, since this seems to be such a grey area (even medical university professors seemed somewhat stumped on the clinical presentation of this disease). Ok I will stop typing now, being someone interested in the medical field it is hard not to elaborate to the best of my ability on everything!

Thank you so much everyone!

Josh