Oral sex can cause throat cancer, so STOP it!

[CoolBreeze]

For all you anti smoking Nazis, I hope your sex life is abundant!


People who have had more than five oral-sex partners in their lifetime are 250% more likely to have throat cancer than those who do not have oral sex, a new study suggests.

The researchers believe this is because oral sex may transmit human papillomavirus (HPV), the virus implicated in the majority of cervical cancers.

The new findings should encourage people to consistently use condoms during oral sex as this could protect against HPV, the team says. Other experts say that the results provide more reason for men to receive the new HPV vaccine.

Maura Gillison at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in Baltimore, Maryland, US, and colleagues collected blood and saliva samples from the throats of 100 patients diagnosed with cancers of the tonsils or back of the throat. The scientists also took samples from 200 healthy people for comparison.

By combining the blood and saliva samples with antibody molecules, Gillison's team could tell whether a person had ever had an HPV infection.
Cancer traps

All of the study participants provided information about their sexual history, including the number of people with whom they had engaged in oral sex.

After controlling for other risk factors for throat cancer, such as drinking and smoking, the analysis revealed that people who had prior infection with HPV were 32 times as likely to have this cancer as those with no evidence of ever having the virus. And those who tested positive for a particularly aggressive strain of the virus, called HPV-16, were 58 times more likely to have throat cancer.

By comparison, either smoking or drinking increases the risk of such cancer by about threefold.

The throat cancers analysed in the new study mostly started in the "crypts" of the throat – the grooves at the base of the tonsils. This might be because the tonsil grooves trap infectious particles, suggests Mark Stoler of the University of Virginia in Charlottesville, US, who was not involved in the study.
High risk levels

The study also revealed a link between oral sex and throat cancer caused by HPV. People who had one to five oral-sex partners in their lifetime had approximately a doubled risk of throat cancer compared with those who never engaged in this activity - and those with more than five oral-sex partners had a 250% increased risk.

There was an even stronger link between oral sex and throat cancers clearly caused by HPV-16 (those tumours that tested positive for the strain). People with more than five oral sex partners had a 750% increased risk of these HPV-16-caused cancers.

"This study is important because it is putting all of the pieces together," says Gillison. "We need to add oral HPV infection to the list of risks for oral cancer," she adds.
Virus vaccine

A vaccine against several of the most aggressive strains of HPV linked to cervical cancer received approval from the US Food and Drug Administration in 2006. However the plan to vaccinate adolescent girls with this vaccine developed by Merck, called Gardasil, has received some criticism.

There have been no studies investigating whether the vaccine can also protect against throat cancer, but the new evidence linking HPV to throat cancer could lead to broader vaccination with Gardasil. "We will see a push for vaccination in men," says Stoler, who has been involved in the development of the vaccine.

Tonsil and throat cancers affect about two in every 100,000 adults in the US. The new results could promote the development of spit tests for HPV infection to help identify people at high risk for these cancers, researchers say.

Journal reference: New England Journal of Medicine (vol 356, p 1944)

[Big Media]

Who would volunteer for such a study...




Wait.




Never mind.

[Lester]

37?!?!?!?!

[Zak Tyler]

37?!?!?!?!

lucky number???? or # of guys you've blown?

[The People's DJ]

Blow me!

[Lester]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vsIohSU1Iww

Probably not safe for work... (but that's where I'm watching it. )

[Bob Loblaw]

I have a friend who prefers to do the oral thing. And she drinks a lot. More than most guys I know.

Now I know what her future holds.

[Zak Tyler]

I have a friend who prefers to do the oral thing. And she drinks a lot. More than most guys I know.

Now I know what her future holds.

but what's she presently holding?



and do i take a number or just stand in line???

[Arp2]

The....what do we want to say or call it....ridiculous attempts at rationalization in the subject area of sex continue to amaze and amuse me.

The new findings should encourage people to consistently use condoms during oral sex as this could protect against HPV, the team says. Other experts say that the results provide more reason for men to receive the new HPV vaccine....

A vaccine against several of the most aggressive strains of HPV linked to cervical cancer received approval from the US Food and Drug Administration in 2006. However the plan to vaccinate adolescent girls with this vaccine developed by Merck, called Gardasil, has received some criticism.

There have been no studies investigating whether the vaccine can also protect against throat cancer, but the new evidence linking HPV to throat cancer could lead to broader vaccination with Gardasil. "We will see a push for vaccination in men," says Stoler, who has been involved in the development of the vaccine.

Ok, so women -- and, now, men -- should just keep doing the same thing but get Gardasil, huh?

Now, take a look at this news article, based on a different study appearing in the very same New England Journal of Medicine....

New data on the controversial HPV vaccine designed to prevent cervical cancer have raised serious questions about its efficacy, researchers are to report today, undercutting the efforts in many states to make vaccination mandatory.

Although the Merck vaccine, called Gardasil, blocked nearly all infections by the two strains of human papilloma virus that it targets, it reduced the incidence of cancer precursors by only 17 percent overall.

Part of the reason was that many of the teenage girls and young women in the three-year study had already been exposed to the virus, according to the report in the New England Journal of Medicine.

But the data also hinted that blocking the targeted strains may have opened an ecological niche that allows the flourishing of HPV strains previously considered to be minor players, partially offsetting the vaccine's protection.

In an editorial in the same issue of the journal, Dr. George Sawaya and Dr. Karen Smith-Carter of the University of California, San Francisco, said young women and their parents should take "a cautious approach" to vaccination because of the many unanswered questions about its efficacy.

At least 24 legislatures have introduced bills calling for mandatory vaccination of girls in their early teens or younger.

Note that Merck did something extremely unusual -- it took a political route, lobbying political bodies to make the three-step, $360 vaccine mandatory ASAP. Now, just a couple of months later,....well, let's just say it now seems obvious why Merck was in such a hurry to get a massive number sold very quickly.

It's not a matter of a vaccine; as with everything in this area, it's a matter of character, decision, and behavior.

[fearpeddler]

I saw something on the news a couple weeks ago where gay men are flocking to hospitals out west to get gardasil shots, apparently they think it can prevent butt cancer...

[Big Media]

I like the "How to Sleep More" Google ad at the bottom of this thread. Ties in nicely, doesn't it?

[Jay Nunley]

Ok, so women -- and, now, men -- should just keep doing the same thing but get Gardasil, huh?


It's not a matter of a vaccine; as with everything in this area, it's a matter of character, decision, and behavior.

So, what? Blow jobs are immoral now?

[Arp2]

Not from your wife, no!

[Zak Tyler]

Not from your wife, no!

how about dave's wife???

[The People's DJ]

Not from your wife, no!

So I guess that means I can't get a clinton?

Damnit!

[Bob Campbell]

You guys are married to women? No way.

[jag]

I wouldn't count it out, The People's DJ. After all, a vote for her just might mean something reciprocal.

[Jay Nunley]

Not from your wife, no!

What about a girlfriend or some other form of realtionship that isn;t a marriage?

[Arp2]

I've already answered that.

[Dave Allen]

Glad no one told me that when I was working my way through....



Uh, never mind.