Thanks for your response. I am not surprised about your surgeon's statement about the smoking. I have not had HPV or other viral diagnoses, nor do I have any family history of cancer in any form. My surgeon seemed glad about the long-ago smoking, implying that it somehow was better to think that the localized irritation as a causative factor was more desirable than a strictly genetic cause. However, it seems quite odd to me that such long-ago smoking (37 years ago) could be the cause. You're right.....we'll never know.