No, here at Asj, we're not Doctors, nor do we
claim to offer any medical advice, however, we stumbled across this and
have placed it here for your consideration.
Oral sex can cause throat cancer 22:00 09 May
2007 NewScientist.com news service Roxanne Khamsi
People who have had more than five oral-sex partners in their
lifetime are 250% more likely to have throat cancer than those who do
not have oral sex, a new study suggests.
The researchers believe
this is because oral sex may transmit human papillomavirus (HPV), the
virus implicated in the majority of cervical cancers.
The new
findings should encourage people to consistently use condoms during oral
sex as this could protect against HPV, the team says. Other experts say
that the results provide more reason for men to receive the new HPV
vaccine.
Maura Gillison at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of
Public Health in Baltimore, Maryland, US, and colleagues collected blood
and saliva samples from the throats of 100 patients diagnosed with
cancers of the tonsils or back of the throat. The scientists also took
samples from 200 healthy people for comparison.
By combining the
blood and saliva samples with antibody molecules, Gillison's team could
tell whether a person had ever had an HPV infection.
Cancer traps
All of the study participants provided information about their sexual
history, including the number of people with whom they had engaged in
oral sex.
After controlling for other risk factors for throat
cancer, such as drinking and smoking, the analysis revealed that people
who had prior infection with HPV were 32 times as likely to have this
cancer as those with no evidence of ever having the virus. And those who
tested positive for a particularly aggressive strain of the virus,
called HPV-16, were 58 times more likely to have throat cancer.
By comparison, either smoking or drinking increases the risk of such
cancer by about threefold.
The throat cancers analysed in the new
study mostly started in the "crypts" of the throat – the grooves at the
base of the tonsils. This might be because the tonsil grooves trap
infectious particles, suggests Mark Stoler of the University of Virginia
in Charlottesville, US, who was not involved in the study.
High
risk levels The study also revealed a link between oral sex and
throat cancer caused by HPV. People who had one to five oral-sex
partners in their lifetime had approximately a doubled risk of throat
cancer compared with those who never engaged in this activity - and
those with more than five oral-sex partners had a 250% increased risk.
There was an even stronger link between oral sex and throat cancers
clearly caused by HPV-16 (those tumours that tested positive for the
strain). People with more than five oral sex partners had a 750%
increased risk of these HPV-16-caused cancers.
"This study is
important because it is putting all of the pieces together," says
Gillison. "We need to add oral HPV infection to the list of risks for
oral cancer," she adds.
Virus vaccine A vaccine against
several of the most aggressive strains of HPV linked to cervical cancer
received approval from the US Food and Drug Administration in 2006.
However the plan to vaccinate adolescent girls with this vaccine
developed by Merck, called Gardasil, has received some criticism.
There have been no studies investigating whether the vaccine can
also protect against throat cancer, but the new evidence linking HPV to
throat cancer could lead to broader vaccination with Gardasil. "We will
see a push for vaccination in men," says Stoler, who has been involved
in the development of the vaccine.
Tonsil and throat cancers
affect about two in every 100,000 adults in the US. The new results
could promote the development of spit tests for HPV infection to help
identify people at high risk for these cancers, researchers say.
Again,
we're not Doctors here on Asj, but the question that comes to mind for
me is : Is this really possible or just a scare tactic?"
True or not, I'm making the
assumption that the mouth and the vagina are a bit alike. Both are warm,
moist areas that bacteria can grow in if not maintained well and cleaned
daily, yes? They both can harvest and encourage the growth of
staph infection. If the HPV was left unchecked for a few hours could it
adhere to the throat and alter the cells enough to create a cancer?
The other question is..Does the
HVP vaccine know one end of the body from another? If the vaccine can
inhibit the cancer is one area, could it do it in another (the mouth)?
Should men and women get the
shot if they are having oral sex?
Next time you visit your doctor, perhaps these are questions to be
raised. If anyone comes across any reputable and documented input on
this subject, I'd be very interested in referencing it here..
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