Oral sex found to be leading cause of throat cancer in UK and US, claims study

A new study has claimed that oral sex is a major risk factor for developing throat cancer in the UK and the US.

By Daphne Clarance: Oral sex has become a major risk factor for throat cancer in the UK and the US, claims a new study. While cervical cancer used to be the most reported type of cancer in the two countries, throat cancer, due to its rapid increase in the past two decades, has been called an “epidemic”, experts say.

Dr. Hisham Mehanna from the University of Birmingham wrote in the journal The Conversation that this was mainly because of human papillomavirus (HPV), which is also the main cause of cancer of the cervix.

HPV is a common virus that spreads through vaginal, anal, and oral sex with someone who is already infected.

The study claimed that oral sex has prompted a large rise in a specific type of throat cancer called oropharyngeal cancer, which affects the area of the tonsils and back of the throat.

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“Over the past two decades, there has been an increase that is rapid throat cancer within the West, to the extent that some have actually called it an epidemic,” Dr. Mehanna wrote in The Conversation.

Previous studies have indicated that HPV infection may be the dangerous element that is the biggest for developing the illness. Further chatting about HPV infection, Dr. Mehanna wrote, “HPV is intimately transmitted. The main risk factor is the amount of lifetime intimate partners, particularly oral intercourse for oropharyngeal cancer.

He added that people with six or maybe more lifetime oral sex lovers are 8.5 times more likely to develop oropharyngeal cancer than those who do not practice sex that is oral.

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According to the UK’s health body, National wellness provider (NHS), around 8,300 folks are diagnosed with throat cancer tumors each in the UK which will be about one in 50 cancers diagnosed per year.

Dr. Mehanna explained that this might lead to an HPV infection during the relative back of the throat or close to the tonsil. These infections go away on their own in most cases but can continue and cause sometimes cancer.

There is a vaccine for HPV, which is 80 percent effective and for sale in several parts of the countries that are developed.

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