Human Papilloma Virus (HPV) Causes Head & Neck Cancer -- in Men and Women

The number of cases of head and neck cancer is increasing. This type of cancer affects approximately 500,000 people around the world. Risk factors for developing head and neck cancer were thought to include drinking, heavy smoking, and infection with the sexually transmitted disease, human papilloma virus type 16 (HPV16). Researchers have determined that the HPV virus (HPV16) causes a different type of head and neck cancer, in both men and women.

In a recent press release, researchers announced that when someone is infected with HPV16 orally, smoking and drinking are no longer risk factors for developing head and neck cancer. Researchers at New Brown University made this discovery. This is an important discovery because it leads to the conclusion that there are different causes of head and neck cancers. If there are different causes, then there will likely be different methods to prevent this cancer as well as different treatments for head and neck cancer.

Currently, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control recommends that the HPV vaccination be given to sexually active women (and girls) under the age of 30. This vaccination is effective at preventing many strains of cervical cancer.

Since cervical cancer did not affect men, no gave a second thought to the idea of giving men the HPV vaccine. Just women.

However, since researchers have discovered that HPV is a contributing factor for head and neck cancer, currently there is only one way to prevent a HPV infection. That is by getting the HPV vaccination.

Before this could be done, studies on men receiving the HPV vaccination would need to be done. Researchers are calling for these studies to begin so that we can protect our men from strains of head and neck cancer.

"We have a profound bit of evidence that HPV16-associated head and neck cancer is a very different disease. Under a microscope, it looks like the same cancer you get from smoking and drinking. But how you get this form of the disease - and how you would prevent and treat it - is quite different," said Karl Kelsey, M.D., a Brown professor of community health and pathology and laboratory medicine and the director of the Center for Environmental Health and Technology.

HPV has many different strains. The National Institutes of Health estimates that 50 to 75 percent of sexually active people contract HPV at some point in their life. Additionally, approximately 20 million Americans have genital HPV.

The American Cancer Society estimates that it costs $3.2 billion annually to treat head and neck cancers in the United States. Approximately 45,000 people develop head and neck cancer in the U.S. every year.

This study has been published in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute.

Source:
http://www.brown.edu/Administration/News_Bureau/2007-08/07-068.html