Source: The Tampa Tribune (tbo.com)By Mary Shedden | Tribune Staff Published: July 28, 2013    LUKE JOHNSON/STAFF David Hastings, the co-owner of Gulport's Habana Café, has testified in front of Florida legislators and officials at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, since becoming a volunteer patient advocate with the Oral Cancer Foundation.   Seven years ago, David Hastings got the worst news of his life. He had oral cancer, and a grueling series of radiation and chemotherapy treatments would be necessary if he wanted to survive. Undergoing months of the "barbaric" treatment was awful, he said, but so was the knowledge that five different doctors couldn't explain how a 56-year-old with no history of smoking or heavy drinking ended up with such an aggressive cancer. "If something is trying to kill you, don't you want to find out what it is?" the Gulfport accountant and business owner asked over and over. It took months, but Hastings learned his cancer was linked to HPV, the sexually transmitted virus long known for its connection to deadly cervical cancers. The answer was elusive because few scientists at that time were looking at the virus and male cancers, he said. Today, doctors know that about 5,600 cases of oral cancer diagnosed each year are tied to the human papillomavirus, a number increasing at a rate faster than that of tobacco- or alcohol-related oral cancers. That's likely because more hospitals and cancer centers, including Moffitt Cancer Center, are able to test for the male [...]