Oral HPV infection, HPV-related cancers more common in men
“This study of oral HPV infection is the critical first step toward developing potential oropharyngeal cancer prevention strategies,” Maura Gillison, MD, PhD, lead author of the study and the Jeg Coughlin Chair of Cancer Research at The Ohio State University in Columbus, Ohio, said. “This is clearly important because HPV-positive oropharyngeal cancer is poised to overtake cervical cancer as the leading type of HPV-caused cancers in the U.S. And, we currently do not have another means by which to prevent or detect these cancers early.”
Oral HPV Often Sexually Transmitted
In an effort to better understand oral HPV infection and how it impacts head and neck cancer risk, Gillison and colleagues analyzed mouth-rinse samples from a group of people between the ages of 14 to 69 who participated in a 2009-2010 national health survey.
Among the major findings:
10.1% of the men and 3.6% of the women showed evidence of oral HPV infection.
Oral infection with HPV-16 was about three times more common in men than in women.
Oral HPV infection was less common in people with no history of sexual contact.
People who had the most sexual partners tended to have the highest risk for oral HPV infection.
“Our data provide evidence that oral HPV infection is predominantly sexually transmitted,” the researchers write.
###
People with oral HPV infections are 50 times more likely to get oral cancer than people who do not have HPV.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, HPV is so common that 50 percent of people who have sex will get it at some point in their lives.
While as many as 100 strains of HPV exist, most are cleared by the body on its own, though a handful can linger and lead to cancer.
About one percent of the population is believed to carry HPV 16, which is linked to 85 percent of HPV-related head and neck cancers.
Researchers have found a 225-percent increase in oral cancer cases in the United States from 1974 to 2007, mainly among white men.
HPV is linked to almost 13,000 cases of cervical cancer yearly in US women, 4,300 of which are fatal. Researchers expect the number of oral cancer cases will surpass the number of cervical cancer cases in the next eight years.
The JAMA study was funded in part by the pharmaceutical giant Merck, which makes a vaccine against HPV.
Merck’s Gardasil was approved for girls and women from age nine to 26 in June 2006 and for males in the same age range in October 2009.
###
More information: The abstract, “Prevalence of oral HPV infection in United States, 2009-2010,” will be presented on Thursday, January 26, 2012.
###
Provided by American Society for Radiation Oncology