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Oral sex more likely to lead to throat cancer than smoking: Study
by BLOOMBERG 01:24 PM Oct 04, 2011NEW YORK - A virus spread by oral sex may now be the cause of more cases of throat cancer in men than smoking.
According to researchers in a report released yesterday, over the last 20 years, there has been a surge in cases of oral cancer linked directly to the human papillomavirus, or HPV, by about 58 per cent. By 2020, the virus which mostly affects men is expected to become more common than HPV-caused cervical cancer.
Such a finding places more pressure on Merck, the second-largest drugmaker in the United States, to conduct large-scale trials to see if its vaccine Gardasil, which wards off cervical cancer in women, can also prevent HPV throat infections.
"The burden of cancer caused by HPV is going to shift from women to men in this decade," Dr Maura Gillison, an oncologist at Ohio State University and study senior author, said. "What we believe is happening is that the number of sexual partners and exposure to HPV has risen over that same time period."
HPV-linked throat cancers, or orophyaryngeal cancers, are increasing so rapidly that by 2020 there will be 8,700 cases in the US, according to a study. Male cases alone will outnumber cervical cancer cases soon after 2020, Dr Gillison added.
Roughly 20 million Americans have genital HPV infections, according to the Atlanta-based Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. At least half of sexually active women and men will be infected at some point in their lives, the CDC says. The virus was found to have not caused health problems in patients only until recently. Today, dead and neck cancers are a potential side effect, especially among older patients who smoke or drink often.
Treatment will involve going through chemotherapy, radiation and sometimes even surgery. However, according to Dr Gillison, "it can leave permanent physical disfigurement, difficulty with speech and swallowing and poor dental health".
Now, a key step to be made would be to perform a study that would follow people over a number of years and track in more detail how HPV-oral infections leads to cancer. "Nobody paid attention to oral HPV infections until 2007," Dr Gillison added, thus the amount of research done and data on HPV is about 15 years behind that of cervical cancer.
by BLOOMBERG 01:24 PM Oct 04, 2011NEW YORK - A virus spread by oral sex may now be the cause of more cases of throat cancer in men than smoking.
According to researchers in a report released yesterday, over the last 20 years, there has been a surge in cases of oral cancer linked directly to the human papillomavirus, or HPV, by about 58 per cent. By 2020, the virus which mostly affects men is expected to become more common than HPV-caused cervical cancer.
Such a finding places more pressure on Merck, the second-largest drugmaker in the United States, to conduct large-scale trials to see if its vaccine Gardasil, which wards off cervical cancer in women, can also prevent HPV throat infections.
"The burden of cancer caused by HPV is going to shift from women to men in this decade," Dr Maura Gillison, an oncologist at Ohio State University and study senior author, said. "What we believe is happening is that the number of sexual partners and exposure to HPV has risen over that same time period."
HPV-linked throat cancers, or orophyaryngeal cancers, are increasing so rapidly that by 2020 there will be 8,700 cases in the US, according to a study. Male cases alone will outnumber cervical cancer cases soon after 2020, Dr Gillison added.
Roughly 20 million Americans have genital HPV infections, according to the Atlanta-based Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. At least half of sexually active women and men will be infected at some point in their lives, the CDC says. The virus was found to have not caused health problems in patients only until recently. Today, dead and neck cancers are a potential side effect, especially among older patients who smoke or drink often.
Treatment will involve going through chemotherapy, radiation and sometimes even surgery. However, according to Dr Gillison, "it can leave permanent physical disfigurement, difficulty with speech and swallowing and poor dental health".
Now, a key step to be made would be to perform a study that would follow people over a number of years and track in more detail how HPV-oral infections leads to cancer. "Nobody paid attention to oral HPV infections until 2007," Dr Gillison added, thus the amount of research done and data on HPV is about 15 years behind that of cervical cancer.
