If there ever were a case for censorship....

[Furiously]

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20070510.wxloral10/BNStory/specialScienceandHealth/home

[Trippy]

That's interesting.

[Selby]

At least there's one less reason for me to be getting cancer.  Looks like someone is looking to place some blame on the whole "your mouth can't get pregnant" movement.

[Nebu]

This has been suggested for years.  I'm guessing that they finally got a lareg enough sample size to attract the mainstream press. 

Thanks for the link. 

[Rithrin]

Everything causes cancer nowadays. I mean, honestly.

[schild]

I'm not buying it.

Edit: But I'd really have no problem buying it, if it were believable.

[HaemishM]

That's got to be the most depressing story I've heard in months.

[Nebu]

I'm not buying it.

Edit: But I'd really have no problem buying it, if it were believable.

I suppose you've never heard of laryngeal herpes.  Care to guess how that gets transmitted?

[WayAbvPar]

That's got to be the most depressing story I've heard in months.

More ammo for my wife. Just what I needed. 6 or more partners in a lifetime? So, like 80% of the people under 60? Maybe I should invest in a voicebox company.

[Strazos]

Damn sluts and manwhores.

[sinij]

Then why throat cancer is not more widespread in homosexual community?

[Furiously]

"Can I help you?"
"Big Mac and a large order of fries." VB
"Stop making fun of me."
"I'm not making fun of you." VB
"I'm getting the manager."
"Get the fucking manager, I don't care." VB

[Sky]

Study participants who reported having oral sex - be it fellatio or cunnilingus - with six or more partners were at greatest risk of contracting oropharyngeal cancer.

I have a 100bajillion% chance of getting throat cancer. Nice to know. Six, heh.

[bhodi]

Sky is a big man-whore.

[Nebu]

Study participants who reported having oral sex - be it fellatio or cunnilingus - with six or more partners were at greatest risk of contracting oropharyngeal cancer.

I have a 100bajillion% chance of getting throat cancer. Nice to know. Six, heh.

You'd have done well to bold a portion of that quote.   :-D

[Merusk]

Then why throat cancer is not more widespread in homosexual community?

Because HPV is primarily female-carried, right?  Guy gets it from eating-out a girl, girl gets it from sucking on dick that's been up in her and in-contact with the virus.

That was the chain that came to my mind, anywho.

[Damn Dirty Ape]

"Hotel Security! This man's drunk as fuck, he's on drugs, he's a male prostitute. I'm gonna escort him out of here!"

[Nebu]

Because HPV is primarily female-carried, right?  Guy gets it from eating-out a girl, girl gets it from sucking on dick that's been up in her and in-contact with the virus.

That was the chain that came to my mind, anywho.

I was going to write it all out, but the CDC has pretty much already said it for me.

Hope you find this helpful.

[HaemishM]

If it gets men less blowjobs, it's the antithesis of helpful.

[Nebu]

If it gets men less blowjobs, it's the antithesis of helpful.

Eating grilled meat increases your risk of cancer more than oral sex... this is little more than the new "I have a headache". 

[Furiously]

If it gets men less blowjobs, it's the antithesis of helpful.

Eating grilled meat increases your risk of cancer more than oral sex... this is little more than the new "I have a headache". 

At least that's what men are going to be saying.....

[Sky]

Sky was a big man-whore.

FIFY

[HaemishM]

If it gets men less blowjobs, it's the antithesis of helpful.

Eating grilled meat increases your risk of cancer more than oral sex... this is little more than the new "I have a headache". 

You really ARE trying to kill all the joy in life, aren't you?

[Nebu]

You really ARE trying to kill all the joy in life, aren't you?

That's the problem with being an experienced medical researcher... you learn how much of a miracle it is that we're even alive. 

[Strazos]

Sky was a big man-whore.

FIFY

Pfft, once a whore, always a whore. 

[Llava]

Oh stop worrying.  Haemish, you're not going to get cancer.  You'll have a massive anuerism when a blood vessel pops in your head three months from now when Warhammer crashes and a message pops up citing "WH.EXE" as the problem.

The wife will die three days later of grief.

So eat all the grilled meat and have all the oral sex you want.

Frankly, I'd rather die of throat cancer than live to be 100 as a vegetarian.

[Merusk]

Because HPV is primarily female-carried, right?  Guy gets it from eating-out a girl, girl gets it from sucking on dick that's been up in her and in-contact with the virus.

That was the chain that came to my mind, anywho.

I was going to write it all out, but the CDC has pretty much already said it for me.

Hope you find this helpful.

Huh, interesting.  My assumption was based on all the silly "take our drug, don't get CANCER," commercials, of course.  I was too damned lazy to care enough beyond that.  Still am, really.

You really ARE trying to kill all the joy in life, aren't you?

That's the problem with being an experienced medical researcher... you learn how much of a miracle it is that we're even alive. 

You're born, you die.  The stuff in the middle is all fun so just enjoy it.  You're only guaranteed a death and even the ultra fit & cautious have horrible, nasty, lingering deaths.  Just hope yours is quick, because only the Reaper knows what's in store for you.  :-D

[Selby]

I was going to write it all out, but the CDC has pretty much already said it for me.

It's amazing how much prevention there is regarding various diseases just by being an anti-social person who never gets any.  I'm going to live to be 110.

[Nebu]

I ran across this blurb as a Medscape article.  It's a summary from the New Eng Journal of Medicine (2007;356;1944-1956, 1993-1995)

May 9, 2007 — The main established risk factors for developing head and neck cancers have been smoking and alcohol use, but a new study suggests that there is an alternative, distinct pathway — and that, for the development of oropharyngeal cancer, oral infection with human papillomavirus (HPV) is the strongest risk factor for the disease.

This case-control study, reported in the May 9 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine, found that a prior HPV infection increased the risk of developing oropharyngeal cancer by 32, much higher than the 3-fold increase in risk found for smoking and the 2.5-fold increase for drinking. Surprisingly, say the researchers, there was no evidence of synergy between exposure to HPV and tobacco or alcohol use. "It's the virus that drives the cancer," senior author Maura Gillison, MD, PhD, from John Hopkins Kimnel Cancer Center, in Baltimore, Maryland, told journalists. "Since HPV has already disrupted the cell enough to steer its change into cancer, tobacco and alcohol use may have no further impact."

"Our data suggest 2 distinct pathways for the development of oropharyngeal cancer," the authors write. One pathway is driven predominantly by the carcinogenic effects of tobacco or alcohol (or both), they say, while the other is driven by HPV-induced genomic instability.

HPV-linked oral cancers have been on the rise since at least 1973, Dr. Gillison commented, and she expects this trend to continue. At present, about 60% of all oropharyngeal cancers and about one third of all oral cavity and pharynx cancers in the United States (totaling more than 11,000 patients) are associated with the virus.

"It is important for healthcare providers to know that people without the traditional risk factors of tobacco and alcohol use can nevertheless be at risk for oropharyngeal cancer," says first author Gypsamber D'Souza, PhD, from John Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.

Link with HPV Now Established

The idea that HPV is involved in oropharyngeal cancers has been around for about 20 years, comments an accompanying editorial, but now the link "appears to be firmly established." Editorialist Stina Syrjanen, DDS, PhD, from the department of oral pathology, at the Institute of Dentistry, University of Turku, Finland, told Medscape that she was the first to report such a link, back during the early 1980s, and notes that many other groups have since reported such an association.

Dr. Syrjanen said that HPV is involved in about 50% of cases of tonsillar cancer and between 28% and 35% of cases of oropharyngeal cancer, which is found at the border and base of the tongue, where the tissue is similar to that found in the tonsils, she explained. Altogether, HPV is associated with about 15% to 25% of all head and neck cancers, she said, and this subgroup of patients has a better prognosis than the others.

Coauthor on the current study, Aimee Kreimer, PhD, from the National Cancer Institute, elaborated on this point to Medscape. The pathology of HPV-associated oral cancers is a little different, as they exhibit a basaloidlike morphology compared with cancers that are HPV negative, she said. Also, patients with HPV-associated oral cancers have a survival advantage and appear to respond better to treatment, she added.

While the evidence for a link between HPV and oropharyngeal cancer has been building over time, this current study "puts together a complete picture," Dr. Kreimer commented, both by showing the strength of the association and by suggesting a mode of transmission for the virus. The data from the study suggest that oral HPV infection is sexually acquired and specifically that it may be transmitted during oral sex.

Dr. Kreimer commented that the study was one of the most comprehensive to date, and so "it advances the field." However, a case-control study cannot establish causality, she pointed out: for that, it would be necessary to follow individuals with oral HPV infection for many years to see whether they develop oropharyngeal cancer, but as this cancer is rare, the numbers that would be needed are prohibitive.

Oral HPV Infection Acquired Sexually

The current study compared 100 patients with newly diagnosed oropharyngeal cancer with 200 matched case controls. Nearly all of the tumors (90%) were located on the tonsil or the base of the tongue. The researchers collected blood and saliva samples to test for HPV and also collected data on risk factors such as sexual practices, tobacco and alcohol exposure, family history, and poor oral hygiene.

Oral-genital contact was strongly associated with oropharyngeal cancer, suggesting that the main route of transmission for oral infection with HPV was via oral sex. Study participants who reported having more than 6 oral sex partners in their lifetime were 8.6 times more likely to develop the HPV-linked cancer. However, the researchers acknowledge that the study cannot rule out transmission through direct mouth-to-mouth contact or other means, such as via skin contact.

Dr. Syrjanen noted that her own studies in young children with oral HPV infection suggest that infants may acquire the infection from their mothers, maybe during delivery, and she has some data from family studies carried out over 7 years, to date, which suggest that there may be some transmission via saliva among family members.

HPVs are found in the mucus of the genital tract as well as in saliva, urine, and semen, Dr. Gillison explains in a press release that highlights the finding. A large proportion of people worldwide are believed to have been infected with the virus at some point in their lives, but most HPV infections clear with few or no symptoms, the researchers explain.

However, a small percentage of individuals acquire a "high-risk" strain of the virus, such as HPV 16, and may go on to develop cancer, they add.

In the current study, HPV 16 was present in the tumors of 72% of patients with oropharyngeal cancer. Also, patients with detectable antibodies to molecules produced by the virus were 58 times more likely to have this oral cancer, a figure "that dwarfs the connection between high cholesterol and heart attacks," the researchers comment.

HPV-associated cancers mainly affect the genital area (anal, cervical, vaginal, penile, and vulvar cancers), and now the link has been made with some oral cancers. Cervical cancer is nearly always associated with HPV, and this has led to the development of a vaccine offering protection against HPV, and hence from cervical cancer. In fact, in the same issue of the journal as the current study, there are new data that confirm the efficacy of Gardasil (Merck & Co) in protecting against precancerous cervical changes and also show that it offers protection against HPV-associated anogenital disease. The link between the virus and cervical cancer has also led to the incorporation of a test for HPV alongside the Papanicolaou test in the standard screening procedures for cervical cancer.

As there is already a marketed vaccine offering protection against HPV-associated cervical cancer, there is speculation that it may also offer protection against the subset of oral/oropharyngeal cancers that are HPV-associated. However, Dr. Gillison pointed out that it is not known whether the vaccine can protect against oral HPV infection and oral cancers; her team is currently working with Merck to investigate this potential. Drs. Kreimer and Syrjanen both agreed that there are no data on this yet but added that they would expect the vaccine to work against HPV-associated oral cancers. However, Dr. Syrjanen added that in view of her studies finding oral HPV infection in young children, it may be that vaccination would have to be offered early in life to be effective.

Dr. Gillison also said that "it is too early" at present to recommend that a test for HPV be used in screening for oral cancer — at the moment, there are no standard screening methods for oral cancer besides visual inspection during dental visits. For their study, the researchers used a saline oral rinse, which they had been working on for 2 years. Patients swirl the rinse around in their mouths and then spit it out, which makes it easy to administer. However, the editorial comments that this rinsing of the oral cavity as a sampling method is one of the shortcomings of the trial, as it does not provide information on where HPV resides in the oropharynx. Dr. Syrjanen told Medscape that such an oral-rinse technique has a higher detection rate for HPV than the alternative method of scraping the oral mucosa, which also offers some data on where the virus resides. Dr. Kreimer commented that it is too early to consider such a test for screening purposes, and in any case, screening for oral HPV infection would only make sense if some intervention were available.

The study was funded by the Damon Runyon Cancer Research Foundation, the Johns Hopkins Cigarette Restitution Fund Program, and the National Institutes of Health. Dr. Syrjanen reports receiving consulting fees from Merck.

[Morat20]

Everything causes cancer nowadays. I mean, honestly.

Used to be you died from other shit. These days, if it's not an accident -- it's generally cancer, stroke, heart attack. If you're not kicking it of natural causes and you're not in your old age, it's almost certainly cancer that got you.

Medicine is just getting better at pinpointing the risks and trying to tackle them one by one, since curing cancer is somewhat problematic. Cancer treatment still consists of "cut out as much as you can, then poison the shit out of the patient on the theory that the cancer cells will die before the patient does". Cancer treatment's pretty slash and burn -- it's the equivilant of amputating a limb to stop the bleeding.

Not much else you can do at the moment other than to reduce the risk and look for more preciesely targetted poisons, although I'm holding out for nanobots.

[Yegolev]

I am of the uneducated opinion that "natural causes" are called less frequently these days because the medical establishment is more knowledgeable about things that kill us now.