An expert has offered their opinion as to why men seem to be disproportionately affected by HPV-related oral cancers.
HPV, or human papillomavirus, is an extremely common sexually transmitted infection that sometimes causes no symptoms but can result in genital warts or long-term cancers.
As per reports, there are over 200 strains of the virus, and while as many as 90% of infections clear on their own within two years, 14 strains are known to cause precancerous changes or cancer itself.
The Center for Disease Control (CDC) claim that around 10 per cent of men and 3.6 per cent of women are known to carry the virus, making it the most common in the US.
Perhaps the most well-known case of HPV was that of iconic actor Michael Douglas, who was diagnosed with stage four throat cancer in 2010. Douglas acknowledged publicly that the disease could be linked to oral sex, while also mentioning smoking and drinking as other potential causes.
Experts have warned that it can be decades before HPV develops into cancer in the back of the throat, also known as oropharyngeal cancer.
Karis Betts, a cancer epidemiologist from Cancer Research UK, revealed to LADbible that HPV infections can go unnoticed for years before developing into cancer.
“There are studies that look at risk for different people. Straight women who have sex with men have a higher risk than women who have sex exclusively with women. And men who have sex with men have higher risk than straight men.
“The HPV vaccine is also available up to age 40 for men who have sex with men because the risk is slightly higher,” Betts said.
“Men have higher rates of head and neck cancers than women. This kind of historically links to other risk factors as well.
“If you look a few decades ago, there were really high rates of smoking in men, high rates of alcohol, and they’ve consistently been higher than women.
“Men have higher rates of head and neck cancers, particularly in the mouth and throat, and these cancers are also caused by other things that are more prevalent in men.”
Though there is no cure for HPV, there is a vaccination available.
“The big kind of preventable measures against HPV in the population are vaccination and cervical screening,” Betts told LADbible.
“Vaccines kind of work best, and that’s why they work best at that school age, because it’s before people have had any exposure to the virus.
“If people are worried about their cancer risk, the best things that they can do, especially for head and neck cancer, is to not smoke, or stop smoking, and reduce their alcohol intake.
“Things like that will have a much bigger benefit on your cancer risk than kind of worrying about an HPV infection.”
The Cleveland Clinic lists the following as warning signs for throat cancer:
- Persistent sore throat
- Pain or difficulty swallowing
- Trouble opening your mouth or moving your tongue fully
- Unexplained weight loss
- Constant or unexplained ear pain
- A lump in the back of the throat or inside the mouth
- A lump or swelling in the neck
- Coughing up blood
- A white patch on the tongue or inside the mouth that doesn’t disappear
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