Our local hospital (where my husband's cancer was diagnosed and where his tonsillectomy was performed) told us it keeps cancer tumor samples for 5-10 years and this is about what Dr. Gillison told us is "usual but not universal" for many pathology centers. She contacted this hospital when Barry entered treatment at Hopkins and they send a sample cut off the original tumor block for HPV testing. They had also cut another set of slides for us to take to Sloan-Kettering when we went up for a second opinion. I got the strong impression that this sort of cooperation was fairly common -- the local hospital had a well-established protocol for sending pathology specimens around.

I do not know how much it costs to be HPV-tested if you pay for it yourself, but the lab can tell you -- they can use formalin-preserved samples as well as the original path slides if necessary. It is a DNA test.

Gail