Oral Sex Raises Risk of Throat Cancer

Michael Douglas and Catherine Zeta-Jones

Oral sex dramatically increases the risk of head and neck cancers according to a new study published in the journal JAMA Oncology.

Previously, the disease was thought to affect smokers and heavy drinkers in later life. But over recent years, as cases have been rising, it has been linked with the common human papillomavirus (HPV).

The new study follows a previous study in The New England Journal of Medicine which showed that those infected with HPV were 32 times more likely to develop oral or throat cancers.

Also, in 2013, Michael Douglas (husband to Catherine Zeta Jones)  revealed that his stage 4 throat cancer was the result of an HPV infection that he got from oral sex and not from smoking.

Dr No-Hee Park, a leading expert in head and neck cancers at UCLA, in a previous study, showed that the mouth, vagina and cervix have the same type of epithelial cells that are targets of HPV 16 and HPV 18. Dr Park's study also showed that smoking and drinking alcohol help promote HPV invasion.

While  HPV does not directly trigger cancer, it causes changes in the cells it has infected (for example, in the throat or cervix), and these cells can then become cancerous.

Finally, men are twice as likely to get oropharyngeal cancer as women because performing cunnilingus is more risky than fellatio.

N.B.There is a vaccine to prevent HPV infection and it is readily available in many hospitals in Nigeria.