{"id":8616,"date":"2010-05-14T12:37:14","date_gmt":"2010-05-14T19:37:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/oralcancernews.org\/wp\/?p=8616"},"modified":"2010-05-14T14:37:01","modified_gmt":"2010-05-14T21:37:01","slug":"sexually-transmitted-virus-leads-to-rise-in-oral-cancer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/oralcancernews.org\/wp\/sexually-transmitted-virus-leads-to-rise-in-oral-cancer\/","title":{"rendered":"Sexually transmitted virus leads to rise in oral cancer"},"content":{"rendered":"

Source: The Boston Channel
\nAuthor: Staff<\/strong><\/p>\n

Boston cancer specialists are trying to learn what\u2019s behind an \u201cepidemic\u201d spike in oral cancer cases that they say is caused by the human papillomavirus, commonly known as HPV.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat you’re seeing here is a five-fold increase in the numbers that we would expect,\u201d said Dr. Marshall R. Posner, of the Dana Farber Cancer Institute. \u201cSo that, to me, is an epidemic.\u201d<\/p>\n

NewsCenter 5\u2019s Heather Unruh reported Thursday that most adults have been exposed to HPV. Doctors say it can be sexually transmitted, even through deep kissing.<\/p>\n

What doctors don\u2019t know yet is why in some people, such a common virus develops into cancer.<\/p>\n

\u201cMost people who get infected with HPV naturally clear the virus,\u201d said DFCI\u2019s Dr. Karen Anderson. Anderson and her team of researchers are trying to isolate who\u2019s at risk for oral cancer from HPV, and why.<\/p>\n

\u201cBecause then,\u201d Anderson said, \u201cwe can focus on more aggressive screening approaches for people who are at higher risk and start to look at more therapeutic interventions earlier on.\u201d<\/p>\n

Posner said that at least 20,000 cases of oropharyngeal cancer are diagnosed in the United States each year. Most patients are young. Three in four occur in men.<\/p>\n

Tony is one face among the statistics. Five days a week he psyches himself up for radiation to treat the cancer that grew at the base of his tongue, where it meets his throat.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat I say,\u201d he said, \u201cis, \u2018It is not of me, or a part of me. Dissolve and go away. And I just repeat that.’\u201d<\/p>\n

Tony’s cancer was caused by HPV. Doctors said he was likely exposed decades ago.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt’s unfortunate that this is something that probably could have been avoided, \u201c he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt’s very treatable,\u201d said Posner. \u201cThe cure rate is very high.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tony and his wife have joined a spousal clinical trial at DFCI.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople need to know,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd to be here and be a part of this study, that feels really important to me.\u201d<\/p>\n

Doctors at Dana Farber want to see a comprehensive approach to preventing future cancers from HPV.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe message is monogamy is good,\u201d Posner said. \u201cWe don’t really know how to prevent it in adults who are already infected. We know how to prevent it in children and that’s by giving them the HPV vaccine.\u201d<\/p>\n

Two vaccines have been approved to protect against the spread of HPV. Gardasil, for sale for several years, protects against the four most common strains of HPV. A second vaccine, Cervarix, was approved by the FDA last October. Cervarix helps block the two types of HPV that cause most cervical cancers.<\/p>\n

Gardasil is now being marketed to protect boys, too.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf my son were 12 to 18 today, I’d want him vaccinated, without hesitation,\u201d said Posner.<\/p>\n

It will take 20-30 years for the Gardasil vaccine to affect the incidence of oropharynx cancer. In the meantime, DFCI scientists are about two years from human testing of a therapeutic vaccine for adults infected with HPV.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Source: The Boston Channel Author: Staff Boston cancer specialists are trying to learn what\u2019s behind an \u201cepidemic\u201d spike in oral cancer cases that they say is caused by the human papillomavirus, commonly known as HPV. \u201cWhat you’re seeing here is a five-fold increase in the numbers that we would expect,\u201d said Dr. Marshall R. Posner, of the Dana Farber Cancer Institute. \u201cSo that, to me, is an epidemic.\u201d NewsCenter 5\u2019s Heather Unruh reported Thursday that most adults have been exposed to HPV. Doctors say it can be sexually transmitted, even through deep kissing. What doctors don\u2019t know yet is why in some people, such a common virus develops into cancer. \u201cMost people who get infected with HPV naturally clear the virus,\u201d said DFCI\u2019s Dr. Karen Anderson. Anderson and her team of researchers are trying to isolate who\u2019s at risk for oral cancer from HPV, and why. \u201cBecause then,\u201d Anderson said, \u201cwe can focus on more aggressive screening approaches for people who are at higher risk and start to look at more therapeutic interventions earlier on.\u201d Posner said that at least 20,000 cases of oropharyngeal cancer are diagnosed in the United States each year. Most patients are young. Three in four occur in men. Tony is one face among the statistics. Five days a week he psyches himself up for radiation to treat the cancer that grew at the base of his tongue, where it meets his throat. \u201cWhat I say,\u201d he said, \u201cis, \u2018It is not of me, or a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":41,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[449,2216,139,87,80,79,34,966],"class_list":["post-8616","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-oral_cancer_news","tag-cervarix","tag-dana-farber-cancer-institute","tag-fda","tag-gardasil","tag-hpv","tag-human-papilloma-virus","tag-oral-cancer","tag-oropharyngeal-cancer"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/oralcancernews.org\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8616","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/oralcancernews.org\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/oralcancernews.org\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/oralcancernews.org\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/41"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/oralcancernews.org\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8616"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/oralcancernews.org\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8616\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8619,"href":"https:\/\/oralcancernews.org\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8616\/revisions\/8619"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/oralcancernews.org\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8616"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/oralcancernews.org\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8616"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/oralcancernews.org\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8616"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}