As someone who lectures to doctors about this subject a numerous professional society meetings, and at university cancer programs I can tell you that the lack of CURRENT understanding and knowledge of the HPV issue in the treatment oriented (not research) sectors of the medical and dental communities is mind-boggling. Whomever is questioning the impact, and the long term issues related to HPV16 is behind the curve knowledge wise. I have recently been to two HPV conferences at which everyone acknowledged the severity of the issue, and the CDC is in the process of assembling a white paper on what we know today. While this is in pre publication stages, I have seen the H&N parts of this and the conclusions are not in question. If anyone doubts the impact of oncogenic HPV, they are oblivious to the the concern that it is reaching outside the realm of oral and cervical.

The article that was linked to in this thread was already in the OCF news section. It takes about 1 minute to sign up for the OCF RSS news feed and you would get all this stuff in a timely manner if you are interested.

It is true that what we know is far out paced by what we do not know. And insurance companies are not going to pay for a test that does not change treatments, it's an academic point at this stage of things. We are years away from clinical trials that can elucidate if different treatment modalities for HPV+ lesions at specific stage could be altered with success. When that question is answered they will likely then do them.

Last edited by Brian Hill; 08-20-2008 05:50 PM.
Brian, stage 4 oral cancer survivor. OCF Founder and Director. The first responsibility of a leader is to define reality. The last is to say thank you. In between, the leader is a servant.