HPV Linked to More Oral Cancers Than Smoking

The number of head and neck cancers linked to the sexually transmitted human papillomavirus (HPV) has increased sharply over the past two decades, and the virus now accounts for more cancers than tobacco or alcohol, a new study finds.

Researchers tested 271 cancer tissue samples collected from oropharyngeal cancer patients in Hawaii, Iowa and Los Angeles between 1984 and 2004. In 1984-89, about 16% of oropharyngeal cancers — cancers of the tonsils, upper throat and base of the tongue — tested HPV-positive, the researchers found. By 2000-04, the proportion of HPV-positive cancers had risen to 72%.

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