The virus linked to many cases of cervical cancer may cause growths in your throat as well, but the vaccination is stillnot covered by insurance in Maryland.
Researchers at the Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center found human papillomavirus causes some throat cancers in men and women. Their findings, published in the May edition of the New England Journal of Medicine, identified oral HPV infection as the strongest risk factor for the disease, rather than tobacco and alcohol use.
Multiple oral-sex partners tops the list of risks contributing to the HPV-linked cancer.
Study author and cancer virus expert Dr. Maura Gillison first reported the connection between HPV and specific throat cancers in 2000, building on work by other investigators. “We believed the links were strong but needed to understand which behaviors put people at higher risk,” Gillison said.
Throat cancer is relatively uncommon, she said, and the overwhelming majority infected with oral HPV probably will not get cancer.
The virus ? carried by a large segment of the population ? is recognized as the major cause of cervical cancer by the National Cancer Institute. As many as 10,000 women in the United States were diagnosed with this cancer last year, and nearly 4,000 died.
Maryland legislators withdrew a bill this year that would have required vaccination for girls by sixth grade in favor of a task force to study the HPV vaccine. That means insurance will not cover the $150 price tag for each of the three shots.
Of men and women newly diagnosed with throat cancer, those with prior HPV infection were 32 times more likely to develop the cancer, according to the article. The rate increased threefold for smokers and double for drinkers.
Those carrying the virus who were also smokers or drinkers were no more likely to develop throat cancer than infected non-smokers.
“Since HPV has already disrupted the cell enough to steer its change to cancer, then tobacco and alcohol use may have no further impact,” Gillison wrote.
