"P16 positive"

Hi Pauline. If it’s referring to your throat cancer eg it’s come from your regular  oncologist i I would think if means your throat cancer was caused like mine and many others by the HPV virus and the  strain  is p16. HPV 16 + respond extra well to treatment

. Who told you negative ? Every letter I’ve ever had since diagnosis always has the tagline  T2N2NM  hpv 16 +. I woujd give your csncer burse or oncologist medical secretary s call to verify. As for the HPV virus st anyone tkne st least 80 % of world population has the virus the vast majority get rid of it without even knowing they’ve had it. A very small number lijd me and seems you our bodies don’t get rid of it and it lurks around eventually turning up an oral cancer in my case tonsils. 
hope this helps .

salivary glands do take time I’m almost 5 years and now I can go several hours without a drink most days but when it’s warm I need more water  food I reckon a good 12-15 mjnths before sny pleasure was got  from food.  You’re seeing consultant Thursday si ask him if you don’t want to ring

Hazel xx

Hi Pauline. P16 is a protein that appears on cells and it can be stained to make it visible on biopsy. It doesn't occur in all cancers but if you are infected with an HPV virus that does cause cancer there might be a lot of it and it shows up on the microscope slide. It's used a marker for HPV driven cancer. BUT some cancers stain P16 and are NOT HPV. The only way the histopathologist knows is to back up the P16 stain by looking for HPV DNA in the sample. This is expensive so simple P16 staining is used as a surrogate marker for HPV

You can be P16 positive but HPV negative......but not many people are. You could ask for clarity.

Regarding the eating. Is your stricture making swallowing difficult? Your team should get on top of this.

Salivary glands that are hit by RT are gone for good but there are plenty of small ones dotted around your mouth that should take over and I'm sure most RT plans try to leave one parotid gland untouched. Acupuncture helped kick start my salivary glands along with chewing gum to make them work. I couldn't taste much at six months but I could eat pretty well