Oral sex is the X-rated culprit behind a wave of throat cancer cropping up in the US, fueling a so-called “epidemic.”
According to Hisham Mehanna, a professor at the Institute of Cancer and Genomic Sciences at the University of Birmingham, the human papillomavirus is to blame.
“For oropharyngeal cancer, the main risk factor is the number of lifetime sexual partners, especially oral sex,” he wrote for the Conversation Tuesday.
Cases of HPV-linked oropharyngeal cancer, a type of throat cancer, rose annually by 1.3% in women and 2.8% in men from 2015 to 2019, according to the American Cancer Society.
The CDC estimates that 70% of oropharyngeal cancers – which affects the tonsils, base of the tongue and back of the throat – are caused by HPV infection in the US.
Past studies have shown that multiple sexual partners could increase the risk of catching HPV and, in turn, developing mouth or throat cancer.
In 2021, researchers discovered that people with 10 or more oral sex partners were more than four times more likely to develop HPV-related mouth and throat cancers.
According to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 41% of teens ages 15 to 19 participate in oral sex. Young people aged 15 to 24 were responsible for nearly half of the 26 million new STD infections in 2018.
HPV is one of the most common sexually transmitted infections (STIs), affecting an estimated 42 million Americans. In fact, it’s so prevalent, according to the CDC, that “nearly all sexually active men and women get the virus at some point in their lives.”
Typically harmless – many people clear the virus on their own with no complications – the virus can lead to cervical or oropharyngeal cancers in some cases.
“However, a small number of people are not able to get rid of the infection, maybe due to a defect in a particular aspect of their immune system,” writes Mehanna. “In those patients, the virus is able to replicate continuously, and over time integrates at random positions into the host’s DNA, some of which can cause the host cells to become cancerous.”
A UK study discovered that the country’s female-only vaccine regimen could significantly reduce HPV-related oropharyngeal cancers. Currently, the HPV vaccine is aimed at preventing reproductive cancers, although the CDC said it does offer protection against the strains of the virus that also causes oropharyngeal cancer.
The current guidance in the US advises 11- and 12-year-olds to receive two doses of the HPV vaccine, but individuals from the age of 9 to 26 are approved to receive it.
Yet, only about 54% of adolescents have received the vaccine as of 2020.
“Over 90% of HPV-associated cancers could be prevented with the HPV vaccination, yet vaccine uptake remains suboptimal,” study author Eric Adjei Boakye said in a statement. His research for the American Association for Cancer Research published this month revealed the lack of knowledge around HPV.