Human papillomavirus, linked to cervical cancer in women, is also associated with oral cancers in men.
Human papillomavirus, a leading cause of cervical cancer in women, gained media attention last year with the introduction of controversial HPV vaccine programs in young girls. Now HPV is in the news for a different reason: HPV is also becoming one of the leading causes of oral cancer in men, rising steadily in men from 1973 to 2004. Mike Stobbe reported in the Globe and Mail that HPV “now causes as many cancers of the upper throat as tobacco and alcohol”. The reasons for the increase in oral cancers caused by HPV may be due to “an increase in oral sex and the decline in smoking”.
A skeptic might wonder whether this latest report is a marketing ploy by Merck & Co. to increase HPV vaccine sales by including men in immunization programs. However, the news report was supported by studies published in the prestigious journal New England Journal Of Medicine and in the Journal of Clinical Oncology.
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