My husband was found to have an HPV-16 SCC because there is a large research program at the hospital where he was treated (Hopkins) and they are now testing all their HNC patients. And, by the way, finding a majority are HPV positive. (Most but not all are non-smokers).

The OCF web site has a lot of info on this -- search for HPV and you will get information as well as recent news updates.

Barry was treated with concurrent chemoradiation, the only surgery was a pre-treatment tonsillectomy.

Right now the trial is limited to those who are within 12 (or perhaps it's 14) months out of treatment and are considered cancer-free by the usual scans and examinations. The first phase, as noted above, is to demonstrate whether the vaccine does, in truth, stimulate an immune response against the virus and at what dosage. If it does, there could theoretically be some benefit to trial participants, by helping them "clear" the virus and thus reduce risk of recurrence. But no one knows if it even works in humans as it does in lab animals.

There is a cervical cancer trial ongoing which will be ending fairly soon and that should give the researchers an initial clue whether the vaccine shows potential.

Gail