Just got back from my appointment with my MO and he was sharing just how interesting and provocative Dr. Gillison's presentations on HPV were at two conferences he attended. I was proud to tell him I am a member of OCF which under Brian's leadership sponsored and encouraged her research. (I left the OCF cards in the waiting room as usual. )
We were discussing how colon cancer is now considered two different diseases depending on the KRAS gene in terms of treatment but that oral cancer doesn't seem to have that breakdown (I was seeking reassurance about my choice first time to do Erbitux). The point of this rambling post is that my MO felt that HPV has the potential to do the same thing for Head and Neck cancer: almost two different diseases in terms of treatment and outcome depending on HPV status. We did laugh about how this was the first time in my life I had wanted an STD test to be positive. I know DavidCPA has been preaching this forever but until now I had not heard it from my medical team. I did mention the informal very preliminary results of my posting about HPV negatives getting more recurrences and suggested it would be worth looking into,