Oral Sex Causes More Oral Cancer Than Smoking!

HPV may now be overtaking tobacco as the leading cause of oral cancers in America in people under age 50.

And HPV, otherwise known as Human Papilloma Virus responsible for gential warts and cervical cancer, finds it way into the mouth via oral sex.

The latest data suggest that 64% of oral cancers are caused by HPV, which is more than tobacco causes. Furthermore, as the number of partners on whom you have performed oral sex goes up, the risk of oral cancer goes up.

These findings were presented by scientists this past Sunday at the American Association for the Advancement of Science annual meeting.

Hopefully, these results will be formally published soon, but you can read the story on CNN for now here.

Read more about oral masses in general here.

Of note, our office does offer the HPV spit test to see if HPV is present in the mouth/throat.

Related References:
Human papillomavirus and oropharyngeal cancer. N Engl J Med. 2007 Sep 13;357(11):1157; author reply 1157-8

Human papillomaviruses in head and neck carcinomas. N Engl J Med. 2007 May 10;356(19):1993-5.

Case-control study of human papillomavirus and oropharyngeal cancer. N Engl J Med. 2007 May 10;356(19):1944-56.