I believe that studies have and are being done that's why we know that there is a strong possibility of HPV16 being a possible causitive factor. There is much research being done on the virus link (for instance Hep C virus causing liver cancer). We also know that tobacco products and alcohol are causitive factors. We also know that 25% or oral cancer patients never smoked or drank.

More than just the so called "sin factor" are the raw numbers, many more people are affected with breast and prostate cancer, for instance, and that is more likely how the research dollars are allocated. Out of 550,000 cancer deaths a year about 7,000 are from oral cancer.

This is a list of the NCI sponsored clinical trials going on within 500 miles of where I live:

http://www.nci.nih.gov/Templates/doc.aspx?viewid=CF77634E-36E7-47C2-A88E-9E7B163D71F3&ReqUrl=%2Fclinicaltrials

compare this with breast cancer:

http://www.nci.nih.gov/search/ResultsClinicalTrials.aspx?protocolsearchid=1454091

One thing is a fact - early detection really does work. We have seen morbidity statistics continually improve for most types of cancer as a direct result of early detection. This is one of OCF's primary missions - to get the word out.