Sexual behavior sparks rise in oral cancer cases
Source: Agencies |
October 5, 2011, Wednesday
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Print Edition
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CANCER of the back of the mouth and throat is on the rise, primarily because of more cases stemming from a viral infection called human papillomavirus (HPV), according to a United States study.
The number of people diagnosed with HPV-related oral cancer in 2004 was triple the number in 1988 - due largely, researchers suspect, to changes in sexual behavior that helped spread the virus.
HPV is a very common sexually transmitted infection that can cause genital warts and certain cancers, including of the cervix, anus and penis.
"The whole relationship between HPV-related head and neck cancer completely changes our ideas of who is at risk, how to treat the cancer, the prognostics of the cancer, and prevention," said Maura Gillison, at the Ohio State University, who led the study, published in the Journal of Clinical Oncology.
Gillison and her colleagues examined oral cancer tissue collected from 271 patients over a 20-year period.
The type of cancer they examined, called oropharyngeal, originates in the back of the tongue, the soft part of the roof of the mouth, the tonsils, or the side of the throat.
The researchers checked the samples for evidence of HPV infection and found that the HPV-related cases became more and more common each decade, while the samples that didn't test positive for the virus became less common.
From these results, they estimate that HPV-related oral cancers afflict 26 of every million people in the US, compared with eight of every million people in 1988.
Tina Dalianis, a professor at the Karolinska Institute in Sweden who did not take part in the study, said she believes the increase in oral cancers "is due to an HPV epidemic."
"We believe sexual habits have changed, and that there is an increase in sexual activity earlier on in life, with an exchange of many more sex partners in general," she said.
The current study confirms what Dalianis had found previously in Sweden - that HPV-related oral cancers were becoming the dominant form of the disease.
Previously, tobacco had been the primary cause of oral cancer, and most oral cancer cases were HPV-negative.
The number of people diagnosed with HPV-related oral cancer in 2004 was triple the number in 1988 - due largely, researchers suspect, to changes in sexual behavior that helped spread the virus.
HPV is a very common sexually transmitted infection that can cause genital warts and certain cancers, including of the cervix, anus and penis.
"The whole relationship between HPV-related head and neck cancer completely changes our ideas of who is at risk, how to treat the cancer, the prognostics of the cancer, and prevention," said Maura Gillison, at the Ohio State University, who led the study, published in the Journal of Clinical Oncology.
Gillison and her colleagues examined oral cancer tissue collected from 271 patients over a 20-year period.
The type of cancer they examined, called oropharyngeal, originates in the back of the tongue, the soft part of the roof of the mouth, the tonsils, or the side of the throat.
The researchers checked the samples for evidence of HPV infection and found that the HPV-related cases became more and more common each decade, while the samples that didn't test positive for the virus became less common.
From these results, they estimate that HPV-related oral cancers afflict 26 of every million people in the US, compared with eight of every million people in 1988.
Tina Dalianis, a professor at the Karolinska Institute in Sweden who did not take part in the study, said she believes the increase in oral cancers "is due to an HPV epidemic."
"We believe sexual habits have changed, and that there is an increase in sexual activity earlier on in life, with an exchange of many more sex partners in general," she said.
The current study confirms what Dalianis had found previously in Sweden - that HPV-related oral cancers were becoming the dominant form of the disease.
Previously, tobacco had been the primary cause of oral cancer, and most oral cancer cases were HPV-negative.
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