I am getting messages from someone on another site regarding a test for oral HPV.
It is my understanding that at this time , there is No reliable test for oral HPV. That it can only be diagnosed with a biopsy. Am I wrong?
she is also saying that there is a direct correlation between HPV on the cervix and oralHPV.
Is my understanding of HPV wrong?
Tammy

HPV is a virus or a collection of over 150 strains of a virus. Most, if not all viruses can be found in the blood through titers but that only says there was antibodies created in response to a virus. Just because someone has HPV, doesn't mean they will get cancer, though. That's the part that seems most confusing, in explaining to others.

Oral cancer and cervical cancer can be from the same strains of HPV that are directly linked to oral cancer, 16 and 18.

So to expound upon your question, oral HPV if it is active when first exposed or until the body resolves it could probably be found on microscopic views and some lab tests but there wouldn't be any reason to do it as 95% or so will resolve by the immune system. An HPV positive tumor, on the other hand can be identified. This isn't science based, just my understanding without getting into p16 overexpression and oncogenes vs oncoproteins. That's Brian's area.

Tammy, this article posted on the OCF News section explains the E6 and E7 genes as well as the p53 protein in a shortened, easy to understand way. I have been reading a lot about HPV and I might be understanding it better. Plus this article is from August 14 so it gives a great insight into the direction being researched to destroy HPV positive cancer cells.

http://oralcancernews.org/wp/new-study-finds-editing-hpv-genes-kills-cancer/

During my treatment I participated in a research trial for an oral HPV test. They did swabs and various liquids. The biopsy is the current method to diagnose but an oral test is certainly being developed.

OralDNA Labs in Minneapolis has an OraRisk HPV test but it will not predict cancer. It will determine which strain(s) you may have but that may only create more worry for no reason.

Even a test that finds HPV16, like the current Oraldna test in the US, is not going to be helpful. While it indeed finds this particular strain of HPV in a person's month on a given day, it finds episomal HPV dna. This is not virus dna that has become involved in the cells dna, even though it is indeed in the cytoplasm, or even in the nucleus. That actual expression of the two onco-proteins that interfere with the cells dna, has to take place for this to be more than a transient infection. It has to happen for cancer to get started. We all have tangent HPV oral infections, which our body's immune system clears up over time, the CDC says virtually everyone who has sex gets this, so what is the value of knowing that on any given day you have one of these transient infections? None.

OCF along with Dr. Gilliosn and Lingen developed the HPV test that looks for the presence of E6 and E7 expression which is the definitive marker for something going to the dark side from HPV. None of these other tests do that. That test is not practical expense-wise to use it as any kind of screening tool, rather it was designed to determine without ambiguity, the actual cause of a cancer before dialing back radiation treatments etc. which some clinical trials are starting to do. Dial back treatments on a tobacco origin oropharyngeal cancer, and you may not have resulting cure. So bottom line before you deviate from the established standard of care treatments, you had better be sure that you have without a doubt an HPV cancer.