The US and UK are suffering from an ‘epidemic’ of throat cancer – and experts point to oral sex as the culprit.
Dr. Hisham Mehanna, from Britain’s University of Birmingham, said 70 percent of throat cancer cases are caused by the human papillomavirus (HPV), a normally harmless virus that is sexually transmitted and has been linked to multiple cancers.
Dr. Mehanna said people with multiple oral sex partners have an up to nine-fold increased risk of throat cancer.
There is a vaccine for HPV, but only 54 percent of Americans have received it — well below the 80 percent figure that is believed to be a threshold for public safety.
Doctors have warned that HPV – the world’s most common STD – is the leading risk factor for throat cancer in men and women (stock)
This graph shows how the number of new cases of throat cancer in the US has increased since 1999. It rises by about one percent per year in women and three percent in men
Dr Mehanna signed up The conversation: ‘Over the past two decades there has been a rapid increase in throat cancer in the West, to the extent that some have called it an epidemic.
“This is due to a big rise in a specific type of throat cancer called oropharyngeal cancer.”
Oropharyngeal cancer is the most common form of throat cancer. It appears in the tonsils and back of the throat.
Doctors consider HPV infection to be the biggest risk factor for developing the disease.
Dr. Hisham Mehanna is a surgeon at the University of Birmingham, UK. He warned about the cancer.
Dr. Mehanna continued, “HPV is sexually transmitted. For oropharyngeal cancer, the main risk factor is the number of lifetime sexual partners, especially oral sex.
“Those with six or more lifetime oral sex partners are 8.5 times more likely to develop oropharyngeal cancer than those who don’t practice oral sex.”
Each year in the US, more than 50,000 cases of oral or oropharyngeal cancer are diagnosed, resulting in more than 10,000 deaths per year.
However, the number of cases is growing to 1.3 percent a year in women and 2.8 percent in men, according to the American Cancer Society.
Doctors have found that oral sex is the biggest risk factor for them – faster than smoking, alcohol consumption and an unhealthy diet.
This is because the actions can lead to an HPV infection in the back of the throat or near the tonsil.
These infections clear up on their own in most cases, but can sometimes persist and cause cancer.
NYU Langone scientists estimate that as many as 70 percent of throat cancer cases are caused by HPV infections.
In the UK, head and neck cancers are collectively responsible for more than 12,000 cases and 4,000 deaths each year.
These data show that throat cancer rates in the UK are on the rise, as in the US
HPV is a common virus that is spread through vaginal, anal, and oral sex with someone who is already infected.
There is a vaccine against HPV. It is more than 80 percent effective and available in much of the developed world.
It is a two-dose vaccine for children between the ages of 11 and 12. The injections come 12 months apart.
For people who missed that window, a three-dose injection is available for people ages 15 to 26.
The shot was only available to women in the US until 2020, when eligibility was extended to men as well.
It comes after a poll found that fewer and fewer Americans know that HPV can cause cervical cancer.
One of the world’s most common STIs, research results showed that the percentage of people aware it could cause cancer had fallen by seven percent since 2014.
Dr. Eric Boakye, an assistant scientist at the Henry Ford Health Center in Detroit, Michigan, who led the research, said: “More than 90 percent of HPV-associated cancers can be prevented with the HPV vaccine, but the uptake of the vaccine remains suboptimal.
“Given the links between awareness of HPV-associated cancer and HPV vaccine acceptance, it is important that we raise public awareness of this link as it may help increase vaccine acceptance.”
He added, “Research has shown that the public has a high level of trust in HPV information when it is received from healthcare providers.”