• 12/22/2007
  • Augusta, GA
  • staff
  • www.wjbf.com

About 15 years ago we learned that HPV, the human papilloma virus, causes cervical cancer. Now, researchers say, that could be just the beginning. They’re looking into an HPV risk for other, or second cancers.

Camille Ragin, Ph.D., M.P.H., Epidemiologist, “We realized that these cervical cancer patients, when we looked at these second cancers, they were primarily at an increased risk of developing head and neck cancers and also lung cancer.”

Women aren’t the only ones at risk. Five years ago, Johns Hopkins researchers found HPV in oral cancer, and most of the patients were men.

Maura Gillison, M.D., Head & Neck Oncologist, “To our surprise, it turned out HPV was in a significant number of these cancers, and they seemed to have distinct characteristics that made them different from cancers that were, that didn’t have HPV in them.”

Most of the cancers started in the tonsils and were not associated with smoking or drinking.

Dr. Gillison, “What was critical was just the number of oral sexual partners you’ve had in your lifetime.”

Findings from the studies could raise new questions about the HPV vaccine used to prevent cervical cancer.

Dr. Gillison, “If the vaccine is shown to be effective in preventing oral HPV infection, then it would be indicated regardless of gender.”

Dr. Ragin, “That certainly cannot be ruled out because there are so many other cancers in men, anal cancers and other types of cancers, penile cancers that are in men, that are also driven by HPV.”

An earlier study for the HPV vaccine was conducted at the Medical College of Georgia.

According to the Centers for Disease Control, most people who have HPV infections don’t have symptoms and clear the infection on their own.