Scientists discover main cause of throat cancer

A virus spread during oral sex is now the main cause of throat cancer in people under 50, scientists have warned.
They said the Human Papilloma Virus (HPV), spread during unprotected sex, is to blame for a disturbing rise in potentially deadly oral cancers in the last few decades.
Doctors have called for boys to be vaccinated against HPV just like teenage girls to stop the spread of the disease.
HPV is best known as the cause of around 70 percent of cervical cancers.
However, it can also cause warts, verrucas and other cancers.
Cancers of the mouth and oropharynx – the top of the throat – used to be mainly diagnosed in older men who drink or smoke.
But increasingly, it is being seen in younger men.
Professor Maura Gillison of Ohio State University, the United States said the sexually transmitted HPV was a bigger cause of some oral cancers than tobacco.
She said: “We don’t know from strict scientific evidence whether the vaccine will protect from oral HPV infections that lead to cancer.
“Those of us in the field are optimistic it will – the vaccines in every anatomical site looked at so far have been shown to be extraordinarily effective, about 90 percent effective, at preventing infections.
“When one of my patients asks whether or not they sound vaccinate their sons, I say certainly.”
In Britain the incidence of throat cancer is rising sharply while in the US the incidence of oral cancers linked to HPV have doubled in the last 20 years.
In Sweden in the 1970s around a quarter of tonsil cancers were linked to HPV, but by the mid 2000s the figure was 90 percent said Prof Gillison.
“That’s the most compelling data in a population that the increase in tonsular cancer or oropharynx cancer incidence we’re seeing in a number of places worldwide is possible caused by HPV,” she said.
Someone infected with HPV 16 – the strain linked to oral cancer – has a 14-fold risk increase of getting oropharynx cancer, she said.
She added: “What is most strongly linked to oral HPV infection is the number of sexual partners someone has had in their lifetimes, in particular the number of individuals on whom they have performed oral sex.
“The higher the number of partners that you’ve had, the greater the odds that you’d have an oral infection.”
Researchers told the American Association for the Advancement of Science conference in Washington DC that teenagers consider oral sex to be “casual, socially acceptable, inconsequential and significantly less risk to their health than ‘real’ sex.”
Last year a study at Johns Hopkins University found that HPV posed a greater risk in contracting cancer than smoking or alcohol.
Most HPV infections have no symptoms and people often do not need treatment. – Daily Mail.