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HPV and oral cancer
Dear Doctor,
What is the real statistics for oral cancer due to HPV? I just read a study where it said 60% of oropharyngeal cancers were due to HPV. Isn't that contradictory to what this website has been saying? What is the real risk and real incidence of oral cancer due to HPV? Is it really more common now to get oral cancer from HPV than from chewing tobacco or alchohol? Please put this into perspective for me.
Thanks, Doc.
What is the real statistics for oral cancer due to HPV? I just read a study where it said 60% of oropharyngeal cancers were due to HPV. Isn't that contradictory to what this website has been saying? What is the real risk and real incidence of oral cancer due to HPV? Is it really more common now to get oral cancer from HPV than from chewing tobacco or alchohol? Please put this into perspective for me.
Thanks, Doc.
Thank you, doctor. I appreciated all of your help.
Sincerely!
Sincerely!
MEDICAL PROFESSIONAL
Dr. Hook accurately addressed these questions in your other thread, and so do the other threads whose links I provided above. Read them, and re-read your discussion with Dr. Hook. The short answer is that it is extremely unlikely you are still carrying infectious HPV from 10 years ago or that you could infect your partner. The chance isn't zero, but no harm would come even if that happened -- so what's the big deal? For the same reason, it is unlikely your former partner's mouth patch was due to HPV.
Try to understand that getting genital HPV is normal; it happens to all sexually active people. That you had an abnormal pap doesn't single you out as being at any higher risk than anyone else. Your past HPV infection is not likely to ever harm you or any current or future sex partner. Of course you should follow your doctor's advice about follow-up pap smears in the future. Otherwise, you should entirely forget about it.
This forum isn't available for repeated reassurance for persons with irrational anxieties, even about HPV or other STDs -- and frankly, I do believe your fears are irrational. It isn't normal to remain so concerned after learning the scientific facts after repeated, reasoned reassurance by experts. If you find your apparent obsession with HPV continuing despite all you have been told, you should consider professional counseling. I suggest it from compassion, not criticism.
That will end this thread. Take care.
Try to understand that getting genital HPV is normal; it happens to all sexually active people. That you had an abnormal pap doesn't single you out as being at any higher risk than anyone else. Your past HPV infection is not likely to ever harm you or any current or future sex partner. Of course you should follow your doctor's advice about follow-up pap smears in the future. Otherwise, you should entirely forget about it.
This forum isn't available for repeated reassurance for persons with irrational anxieties, even about HPV or other STDs -- and frankly, I do believe your fears are irrational. It isn't normal to remain so concerned after learning the scientific facts after repeated, reasoned reassurance by experts. If you find your apparent obsession with HPV continuing despite all you have been told, you should consider professional counseling. I suggest it from compassion, not criticism.
That will end this thread. Take care.
My ex boyfriend had a whitish patch on his cheek gum area a month or two ago that took a long time to go away. My history is of having a leep in 2001 with subsequent negative paps and HPV tests. Is there any way I could have given him oral HPV from this? The information is still so confusing to me and I just want to sleep at night. What are the chances of me spreading HPV to him after negative paps/ negative HPV tests from over 10 years ago? I'm sure I'll probably die of some stress related illness such as a heart attack from all this darn worry about HPV!!!!! Other sources have said there is a chance I could spread it again. Help!!
MEDICAL PROFESSIONAL
Welcome back to the forum. I'll be happy to put these issues "into perspective" for you.
Your worries about oral HPV and cancer may have been elevated by web searches, in which you found information that, placed in proper context, also should be reassuring. Anxious people tend to be drawn to information that confirms their worries, and to not see or assimilate the reassuring bits. As you learned from Dr. Hook a few weeks ago, HPV infections typically clear up on their own, and that includes the large majority of oral HPV infections.
There is no contradiction between "60% of oropharyngeal cancers were due to HPV" and what we have said on this forum, at least not if you read both sources carefully. Among particular orpharyngeal cancers -- specifically squamous cell cancers of the back of the throat, i.e. in the tonsil area -- it's probably over 60%; probably 80-100% are associated with HPV. Only one type actually is involved, HPV-16. The rate of such cancers has been rising in recent years, but it's currently in the ballpark of 10,000 cases per year in the US. That's a very small number in a population of 320 million, far less frequent than common cancers like breast, cervix, lung, colon, lymphomas, etc.
Millions of people acquire oral HPV infections whether by oral sex or perhaps other routes. A recently published research study showed that at any point in time, 1% of the population has HPV in the throat, i.e. around 3 million people. The vast majority of these, and the vast majority of those not yet infected who will acquire oral HPV-16 in the future, will never get cancer. Finally, many or most of those HPV-16-related cancers each year typically occur in older persons who also have the other risk factors you mention, such as smoking or excessive alcohol intake. Non-smokers and social drinkers will be at even lower risk.
So my advice is that you not worry in the least about oral HPV or its long term health consequences. Doing so would be akin to worrying about being struck by lightning -- which probably is actually a higher risk.
In case you are interested, here are links to two other threads that go into these issues in great detail, and one of them has still other links in it:
http://www.medhelp.org/posts/STDs/HPV-and-oral-sex/show/1515473
http://www.medhelp.org/posts/STDs/Oral-HPV-Cancer-Risk/show/1512873
I hope you find this information reassuring. Best wishes--
HHH, MD
Your worries about oral HPV and cancer may have been elevated by web searches, in which you found information that, placed in proper context, also should be reassuring. Anxious people tend to be drawn to information that confirms their worries, and to not see or assimilate the reassuring bits. As you learned from Dr. Hook a few weeks ago, HPV infections typically clear up on their own, and that includes the large majority of oral HPV infections.
There is no contradiction between "60% of oropharyngeal cancers were due to HPV" and what we have said on this forum, at least not if you read both sources carefully. Among particular orpharyngeal cancers -- specifically squamous cell cancers of the back of the throat, i.e. in the tonsil area -- it's probably over 60%; probably 80-100% are associated with HPV. Only one type actually is involved, HPV-16. The rate of such cancers has been rising in recent years, but it's currently in the ballpark of 10,000 cases per year in the US. That's a very small number in a population of 320 million, far less frequent than common cancers like breast, cervix, lung, colon, lymphomas, etc.
Millions of people acquire oral HPV infections whether by oral sex or perhaps other routes. A recently published research study showed that at any point in time, 1% of the population has HPV in the throat, i.e. around 3 million people. The vast majority of these, and the vast majority of those not yet infected who will acquire oral HPV-16 in the future, will never get cancer. Finally, many or most of those HPV-16-related cancers each year typically occur in older persons who also have the other risk factors you mention, such as smoking or excessive alcohol intake. Non-smokers and social drinkers will be at even lower risk.
So my advice is that you not worry in the least about oral HPV or its long term health consequences. Doing so would be akin to worrying about being struck by lightning -- which probably is actually a higher risk.
In case you are interested, here are links to two other threads that go into these issues in great detail, and one of them has still other links in it:
http://www.medhelp.org/posts/STDs/HPV-and-oral-sex/show/1515473
http://www.medhelp.org/posts/STDs/Oral-HPV-Cancer-Risk/show/1512873
I hope you find this information reassuring. Best wishes--
HHH, MD
You are reading content posted in the STDs Forum
Herpes spreads by oral, vaginal and anal sex.
Herpes sores blister, then burst, scab and heal.
STIs are the most common cause of genital sores.
Millions of people are diagnosed with STDs in the U.S. each year.
STDs can't be transmitted by casual contact, like hugging or touching.
Syphilis is an STD that is transmitted by oral, genital and anal sex.
