Human Papilloma Virus Vaccines May Decrease Chances Of Oral Cancer

By brightfeather on September 2nd, 2007

Further research is being conducted into the relationship of HPV with oral cancers. Oral sex has become an accepted norm, yet HPV lesions are very uncommon in the mouth. Essentially, oral sex appears to have a risk of transmission of HPV as recent studies report high-risk HPV in approximately 1/4 of oral cancers.

The Centers for Disease Control report that nearly 25 million women are infected with some form of the Human Papilloma Virus (HPV). Of those, more than three million are thought to have one of the four strains known to cause cases of cervical cancer and genital warts.

HPV is linked to oropharyngeal cancer and may be linked to oral cancers as well, and vaccines that have been developed to treat HPV might decrease the risk of these cancers, according to a study in the May/June issue of General Dentistry, the clinical, peer-reviewed journal of the Academy of General Dentistry (AGD).

James J. Closmann, BS, DDS, the lead author of the study, found that oral and oropharyngeal squamous cell carcinoma (OOSCC) have been linked to high-risk HPV strains, the same strains that cause cervical cancer.

Recently, a vaccine was developed to treat patients with HPV against cervical cancer, and this could have an effect on women’s oral health. Read the full article at this link.

References:

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