Human papillomavirus and laryngeal cancer
Laryngeal cancer and oral cancer have been proven to be associated with human papillomavirus, or HPV, infections. In the UK young girls are vaccinated against HPV, as it can also cause cervical cancer. HPV is a virus which mainly infects the genital areas i.e. the genital organs, but it may also infect the mucosa of the mouth and thereby cause laryngeal and oral cancer. However, only a small percentage of the infected patients develop a chronical infection and thus cancer, as the immune system successfully fights the infection in most cases.
There are more than 100 types of HPV, and one of the types which is known to cause cervical and laryngeal cancer is type 16. This type can also lead to anal cancer, penile cancer, vaginal cancer and oral cancer.
Most people consider oral and laryngeal cancer to be a result of smoking and alcohol, as great exposure to these risk factors increases the risk of developing these types of cancer. In recent years, the number of cases has increased and it has become apparent that the disease is often associated with an underlying HPV infection. The number of cases has actually increased over the past 20 years, and it is therefore interesting to find out what environmental and lifestyle factors the cause of the increase can be associated with.
Research connects oral sex and laryngeal cancer
Research has shown that having oral sex increases the risk of getting infected with HPV in the oral mucosa. Further research has shown that the risk of developing laryngeal cancer is 22 times higher for people who have oral sex compared to those, who never have oral sex. This is because the people who were infected with HPV-16 in the oral mucosa were 22 times more prone to developing potentially deadly tumours in the mouth.
The results from the study are based on data from around 97,000 people, who had traces of HPV-16 in their larynx. At the beginning of the study, all subjects were cancer free and they were followed for an average of four years. The subjects were compared to roughly 400 subjects who acted as controls and who weren’t infected with HPV-16 or other types of HPV. By comparing the two groups, a person infected with HPV was 22 times more likely to develop laryngeal cancer than one of the control subjects.
