The point being (while I certanly won't argue with the nih about anatomy), that the guy at UCSF did everyone a disservice by saying that HPV and oral cancer are not connected, based on semantics. The ADA, and just about every other professional society that is engaged in the mouth as an area of responsibility, would say that while this guy was anatomically correct, he did great disservice to those trying to get a handle on this, as Medicine is not going to be opportunistically looking for oral cancers or cancers of the oropharynx. If you think dentistry has dropped the ball, find me an MD that does opportunistic screenings. That would probably be less than 5% of all of them. I wrote a long letter to the school and to the individual doctor about all this this AM, and asked Gillison and others to set him straight on what the real world needs to hear. This issue has been in the media for 8 years as an oral cancer, and now this one person wants to change the notes of the song we are all singing to the public. Anatomically a correct statement, OK, but confusing statement to the public? You bet.

As to stating that this is "only a throat cancer".... well then who is going to be responsible for it an champion this growing disease etiology? If we do not consider it part of our realm then who?

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.