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Heyyy Guys I was just wondering about throat cancer. If you give oral sex and then find out you have HPV should you do something about the throat? should i get tested? Or not do anything..... any one have any similar stories???
Exercise Cancer Head and neck cancer Cervical cancer Oral cancer HPV Obesity Oral health Stress
Hi Akis17.
I had a colposcopy in June 2008, and have since wondered the same thing about Oral Cancer and HPV. Two weeks ago, I noticed a hard, painless lump at the roof of my mouth, so I have made an appt with my dentist (who does oral cancer checks) to have a biopsy done. I am SO scared it may be related to HPV. I will keep you posted, but I would think an oral check would be a good idea (I'm not sure what it involves though).
I also found some helpful information about Oral Cancer and its relation to HPV on this website:
http://www.oralcancerfoundation.org/facts/humanpapillomavirus.htm
All the best :-)
akis, keep in mind that if you have vaginal/cervical hpv, your partner is the one at risk for hpv related oral disease. you would be at risk for oral hpv exposure if you're performing oral sex on someone who has an active hpv infection on his penis, genitals, etc. Of course, you might also be assuming that if you have an active vaginal/cervical hpv infection, your partner has one as well. The best course of action is to use condoms, and avoid hpv exposure as best you can, particularly while the hpv infection is active.
Akis-I would advise everyone to get tested if they're HPV positive and have experienced oral sex, regardless of which partner is performing it as mentioned by Floralshoplady, since you don't know if you've transmitted it to your partner and vice-versa. I just found out about this correlation when I went for my annual dental cleaning and was shocked to hear about it. I went ahead and got tested and everything turned out fine. THANK GOD!
It seems that we are barely skimming the surface with HPV and cervical cancers, etc. and now we have to hurry up and get educated on oral cancer too! Again, I find the medical community dragging its feet in educating patients. :(
HPV is the #1 cause of cancer WW. HPV mediated cancer out ranks smoking, drinking etc. as the cause of cancer. If you have HPV, you are at risk for all HPV cancers.
40-60% of all Oral Cancers are HPV mediated. You can be screened for it via a Velscope or Vizilite devise. Go to their websites and find a dentist with them near you. Insurance wont cover it but it is well worth it since most Oral Cancer is foudn Stage IV when the prognosis is very bad. Just like the pap smear, these devices can help idenitfy dysplastic tissue before it becomes cancer so you can treat accordingly.
HPV is underplayed in the media and with most of the medical community especially when 80% of all women (and therefore only logically men) have it by the time they hit 50 or have had 2.1 sex partners.
BB
Hey meliza i was just wondering what was the test you had to have? and i completely agree with you on the lack of education there is about hpv! it makes me soooo angry.
Dear BB,
Where did you get the stat for most oral cancer that's found is stage IV?
Thx in advance
Keep in mind that when they're talking about such a high percentage of oral cancers being related to HPV, they're talking specifically about the type of oral cancer that's at the back of the throat. I believe total oral cancer related to HPV is about 25% (last statistic I heard). The number one cause of oral cancer is still smoking and drinking.
I was really worried about some bumps at the far back of my tongue (which turned out to be my tastebuds) -- so don't anyone freak about raised bumps (about six or so in a pattern at the very, very far back of your tongue).
I saw an oral medicine doctor who actually did testing of the Velscope and has done studies on oral HPV. He told me they biopsied a lot of lesions throughout the mouth, but the ones that weren't at the back of the throat pretty much never had HPV (or at least the type of HPV that would cause cancer). I imagine you could get the equivalent of venereal warts throughout your mouth (the low risk type of HPV), but not so much the type of HPV-related lesions that lead to oral cancer.
This doctor spent a lot of time with me and gave me a thorough examination. After talking with him and hearing what he had to say, I really decided that, other than getting a routine checkup once every year or two, I was not going to worry about oral HPV/oral cancer.
The practical advice he offered was:
1. Continue to practice good overall oral health by brushing/flossing/seeing the dentist routinely.
2. Exercise moderately 20" - 1/2 hour each day -- since that's a main contributor to general, overall good health and improves the immune system
3. Possibly take Vitamin D supplement since Vit D is the one supplement that seems in studies to reduce the rate of cancers.
4. Don't smoke
5. Don't drink too much (more than 2 glasses of alcohol, except occasionally OK to exceed)
6. Keep stress low! Viruses are very responsive to stress and stress can increase susceptibility. Further, he told me to go out and actively have fun.
I did have HPV16 and was probably exposed orally as well, so it's something I really worried about. But I finally decided after looking at all the evidence, that the best I could do was a thorough check yearly or every other year by a doctor who has some expertise in HPV-related oral medicine and then just follow his advice for good health as outlined above.
At this point, I've become more concerned about over-treatment than undertreatment and have decided that sometimes "less is more" and to be very selective in both diagnostics as well as biopsies -- having the absolute minimum of those that, in my view, will provide reasonable surveillance.
Corellin:
Good feedback!
FOr the most up to date, evidience-based scientific information on this topic, come to the National Cervical Cancer Coalition (NCCC) HPV Cancer Coalition meeting this Oct. 8,9,10 in Chicago, Ill.
www.nccc-online.org
Best regards,
NCCC
My dentist gave me a brochure titled "ViziLite Plus: Oral Lesion Identification and Marking System with TBlue. The website is www.vizilite.com. The exam was quick and painless. The cost of the exam was not covered by my insurance, but I don't remember how much I paid. It was about $60 I think, worth the peace of mind. Good luck to all!
like corellin, i don't view oral cancer as a significant health risk for me, though i have screenings included in my prevenive health care approach - just like i have mammograms, for instance, for which i do have a much higher risk. hpv accounts for only about 25% of oral cancers, twice as many men as women get oral cancers, and smoking and alcohol are significant risk factors (which don't apply to me). plus, i get regular thorough oral cancer screenings from my dentist. so, i take precautions, but i don't feel worried about it. do you know that most dentists don't do adequate screenings? and, all that is needed is tactile and visual exam. these light detection devices may be a good addition, but not necessary, according to most sources, and not a replacement for a thorough screening exam. the oralcancerfoundation.org site is a great source of information.
and, faith2, all through the oralcancerfoundation.org site, it says that 'most' (i didn't see a percentage cited) oral cancers are found at advanced stages of III and IV.
Hi All:
Stats will vary depending on which articles you read.
Keep in mind, Oral cancer is only one type of Head and Neck Cancer.
According to an article I recently found: "About 25 percent of the 40,000 head and neck cancers annually in the United States, or about 10,000 cases, are attributable to HPV, Gillespie said. A decade ago, the number of mouth cancers related to the virus was nearly zero."
My dentist had a reprint of an article in his office which I can't locate (but which is why I pikced him) which puts Oral Cancer that is HPV mediated at 40-60%.
The reality is if your body has not successfully fought HPV somewhere else (cervical) and in my canse cervical, vulva and anal- I am not willing to hope that it wont cause problems elsewhere and would rather be as proactive as possible.
I do also want to correct that Head and Neck in 60% of the cases is caught late stage versus stage IV. Some of it can be attributed to the fact that many do not go to teh dentist who is teh first line of defense on a regular basis.
Hope this helps. I have recently switched dentists to one who is progressive on the HPV front and cancer screening front. My last dentist who is very well respected in the communtiy told me since I wasnt a male who smoked and drank, I wouldnt get it. case
BB
This is a good site to read. It discusses that the demographics for Oral Cancer are changing and its causitive agent is now just as often HPV and in a younger group.
http://www.oralcancerfoundation.org/facts/index.htm
BB
Hi BB33301,
I'm shocked that HPV is the #1 cause of cancer world wide. This is very distressing. We hear all the time about smoking, the environment, obesity etc. but never about HPV! Is there a stigma b/c it's sexually transmitted? And yet HIV is discussed more openly. I guess a bigger effort needs to be made to get the "word" out regarding safer sex and HPV. And male testing! Many of us are/were diligent in discussing our sexual health with our partners and getting tested for STD's and STI's before we had sex with them. But how can a woman know if her partner has HPV if he cannot be tested?
With HPV being responsible for so many cancers, it's time doctors and dentists stopped making light of HPV and looking at it as just a common virus. A virus responsible for so many cancers, cannot be "common"....
xoxo
I agree on the awareness or lack there of front.
I believe the sex stigma puts people off which is why whenever I talk about it I site the stats so that people realize just about everyone has it. If you have ever even had a wart on your finger or foot, you have had HPV. There are over 100 HPV types and some like 16, 18, ar emore likely to cause cancer.
The challenge with HPV, is there is no such thing as safe sex. Condoms do not prevent it since it can be passed skin to skin and from hair so... the only real way to prevent it is abstinence which is why everyone is at risk.
BB
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