Posted on 12/12/2002 8:13:17 AM PST by Sangamon Kid
Oral sex linked to cancer of the mouth
By Sarah-Kate Templeton
New research to be published next year will provide powerful evidence that oral sex can cause mouth cancer.
Doctors who first suggested a form of mouth cancer could be linked to the same sexually transmitted virus that causes cervical cancer have found more data to back their controversial theory. Two years ago, the group from Johns Hopkins University in the US published a paper suggesting the human papilloma virus (HPV), the cause of most cervical cancer, can also cause mouth cancer.
A new study, to be published in six months' time, will confirm this research, according to Dr Maura Gillison, an oncologist and member of the Johns Hopkins group. The news comes as Scottish mouth cancer experts are calling for research to be done here into the suspected link with oral sex.
David Soutar, president of the British Association of Head and Neck Oncologists, said: 'We were involved in a pilot study which suggested that this is certainly something that we should look into.
'It should be investigated further, particularly in people who don't have any of the risk factors such as smoking and drinking.
'One of the things that has interested me over the past 15 years is the increase in the number of women with oral cancer. It used to be five men to one woman but it is now about two men to one woman. What we do not know is whether this is all down to smoking.
'When I see the increase in women with oral cancer I think oral sex has to be one of the causes. We also have to find out why the age group suffering from oral cancer is becoming younger. Ideally, we would want to look at the under-45s.'
Mr Soutar, a consultant plastic surgeon at Canniesburn Hospital and the Nuffield Hospital, both in Glasgow, says it is difficult to find people willing to discuss their sexual behaviour, but says we have to consider the possibility sexually transmitted viruses are one of the causes.
Finding out whether HPV is a cause of mouth cancer is all the more pressing now that new treatments are being developed to fight cervical cancer. A vaccine to stop cervical cancer could become available within five years and doctors believe a similar vaccine could protect against some oral cancers.
The vaccine works by boosting the immune system against strains of HPV. The vaccine against cervical cancer will be targeted at girls of about 12 or 13, before they become sexually active and vulnerable to HPV.
But Soutar warns that, unlike cervical cancer where most forms of the disease are caused by HPV, the sexually transmitted virus could only be responsible for less than 20% of mouth cancer cases. He said targeting a vaccine would therefore be more difficult.
'If we could identify the sub-group this would be of benefit. We know smoking and drinking is probably the cause in 80% of cases so we couldn't use it in the same way as the vaccine against cervical cancer. This would only be a small proportion of those who have oral cancer.'
In the past decade in Scotland there has been an almost 50% increase in oral cancer among under-45s, and in the last 40 years a fourfold increase in younger patients suffering from it. Oral cancer affects 3000 people in the UK each year and the problem is worse north of the border.
www.omfsaboutface.co.uk/ aware.htm
www.cancerresearchuk.org
Hey DirtyMindDoc....why is this your first hypothesis?? Could it be that more young women are just smoking cigarettes? Pole smoking need not be your first suspicion....
No inference here or anything. Still, as a "healthy" heterosexual the first thought was...
Bad news for all women.
My gynecologist, as well as my mother, who was a public health nurse, told me that the Human Papilloma Virus is transmitted from men to women, usually never affecting the man, but showing up in women as abnormal pap smears, which can lead to cervical cancer. It stands to reason women might have an elevated risk of oral cancer if, well...you know.
Don't forget the cameras - I mean, come on, how are supposed to enforce our morals on everyone else. As an added bonus we can check for people growing MJ
"double, plus good, citizen!"
Thanks for the post.
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