An October 2011 study published by the American Society of ClinicalOncology claims an increased connection between throat, and more widely speaking, oropharyngeal cancer (the middle part of the throat, including the soft palate, the base of the tongue, and the tonsils) and the rampant sexually-transmitted virus called HPV — human papillomavirus — the same virus linked to cervical cancer in women.
“A similar study conducted by Johns Hopkins University in 2007 also found HPV to be a stronger risk factor for throat cancer than tobacco or alcohol use,” said “Pleasure first, safety maybe,” an article published by Asia One Health News on the web.
Dr. Atanacio Cob, an ENT specialist in the profession for the past 20 years, told Amandala today that while he has not seen the particular study,“HPV from way back was thought [to be] associated with cancer of the throat.”
“Of course, the usual way of transmission…is oral sex,” Dr. Cob said.
Cob said that DNA tests have confirmed a similarity to the virus associated with cancer of the cervix, uterus, vagina and anus.
The October 2011 study in the US notes an increasing link between throat cancer and the HPV.
In the study titled, “Human Papillomavirus and Rising Oropharyngeal Cancer Incidence in the United States,” Anil K. Chaturvedi, PhD, of the National Cancer Institute and National Institutes of Health, along with a team of researchers from various US states, noted “recent increases in incidence and survival of oropharyngeal cancers in the United States have been attributed to human papillomavirus (HPV) infection…”
A sample of 271 oropharyngeal cancers dating from 1984-2004 and collected by the three population-based cancer registries in the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) Residual Tissue Repositories Program in the US were examined.
Whereas they found an HPV prevalence of 16.3% for the years 1984 to 1989, the prevalence increased to a shocking 71.7% for 2000 to 2004.
Dr. Cob said, “…there is nothing that really rivals the presence of HPV in the lower genital tract… it is the most common virus present in [the] genital area and so much so that more or less every year in the US, a million people will acquire genital papillomas.”
Cob said that whereas he has seen cancer patients with cancers in the throat, tonsils, palette, and larynx, for example, “most patients have a direct and distinct relationship to smoking.”
He said that he is not aware of testing for HPV prevalence in Belize.
Cob noted, however, that “…we should take it as a fact that oral sex – that HPV has a direct causal relationship to throat cancer.”
The specific strain, he said, that is guilty of causing cancer is #16; but numbers #6 and #11 mostly cause genital warts. According to Cob, patients have exhibited warts in the throat as well.
Gynecologist Marcelo Coye told us Wednesday that HPVcan be transmitted without people even knowing, because most people don’t have symptoms.
“It’s in the blood and 50% of adults sexually active have HPV, but few manifest it,” he said.
There are scores of HPV types, said Coye, but only four are linked with cancer.
Experts at the US National Cancer Institute say that a genital HPV infection also causes some cancers of the vulva, vagina, and penis. In addition, they say that oral HPV infection causes some cancers of the oropharynx. It has been estimated that HPV infection accounts for approximately 5 percent of all cancers worldwide, they added.
It has also been noted by medical experts that nonsexual oral infection through salivary or cross transmission – which includes kissing after oral contact with genital areas – is also plausible.
In some US states and foreign countries like Malaysia, oral sex, although a common practice, is considered an unnatural sex act punishable as a criminal offence.