ATLANTA, GA – Sharp rise in head and neck cancers questions the use of a vaccine usually used for women. Human Papillomavirus (HPV), normally associated with women, is credited with the rise in the number of head and neck cancer in men.
Between 1988 and 2004, head, neck and throat cancers that tested positive for the human papilloma virus rose an astounding 225 percent, according to a new study in the Journal of Clinical Oncology.
According to the study, within the next decade the incidence of such cancers, which are almost always contracted as a result of oral sex, will surpass that of cervical cancer, and the majority of those cases are going to be in men. However, there is a vaccine that can prevent it.
In the recent controversy over comments made by presidential candidate Michele Bachmann about the HPV vaccine, the focus was squarely on young women and cervical cancer.
But HPV, mainly a strain called HPV-16, also causes oropharyngeal and anal cancer, a fact not often publicized because medical organizations, the government, and academics would rather not step into any debates about sex practices.