2008 Woodie Awards
HPV tied to oral cancer in males
Melanie Kucera - The Daily Iowan
Issue date: 2/7/08 Section: Metro
A new spotlight is being put on men and the effects Human Papillomavirus has on them.
Though women are usually associated with the common sexually transmitted virus, some new research is changing that thought.
Results from a new study have shown that the virus, known as HPV, has increasingly been causing oral cancer in males, according to researchers.
The study, published in the *Journal of Oncology* on Feb. 1, was conducted for over 30 years using information from the National Cancer Institute. Researchers sorted each case into a group, one that had HPV as the cause of the cancer and another where it was unrelated.
The results found that HPV-related oral cancers, which include tonsils, lower tongue and upper throat, increased in men over the 30 years, while HPV-unrelated oral cancers declined significantly.
"This study doesn't surprise me," said Dr. Mukund Nadipuram, an oncologist at Convent Cancer Center in Waterloo, adding that since HPV can cause cervical cancer in women there is no reason for it not to increase oral cancer in men.
Nadipuram said that he has seen an increase of oral cancer patients, which primarily are men, however they do not check for HPV in patients, so was unable to judge whether there was a direct correlation.
Currently, there is no vaccination for men against HPV, only women. The vaccination, GARDASIL, became approved for usage in the U.S. in 2006 by Merck & Co., Inc., said Heather Collins, a spokeswoman in the global communications department at Merck & Co.
GARDASIL has been at the center of debate regarding whether or not to make it a requirement for young females, something that opponents say would encourage sexual activity.
Collins added that Merck & Co. is currently doing studies to see how efficient GARDASIL would work in men, and are set to submit the men's version of the vaccination for approval to the FDA before 2009.
"We want to get our ducks in a row before submitting any types of data," Collins said.
Though women are usually associated with the common sexually transmitted virus, some new research is changing that thought.
Results from a new study have shown that the virus, known as HPV, has increasingly been causing oral cancer in males, according to researchers.
The study, published in the *Journal of Oncology* on Feb. 1, was conducted for over 30 years using information from the National Cancer Institute. Researchers sorted each case into a group, one that had HPV as the cause of the cancer and another where it was unrelated.
The results found that HPV-related oral cancers, which include tonsils, lower tongue and upper throat, increased in men over the 30 years, while HPV-unrelated oral cancers declined significantly.
"This study doesn't surprise me," said Dr. Mukund Nadipuram, an oncologist at Convent Cancer Center in Waterloo, adding that since HPV can cause cervical cancer in women there is no reason for it not to increase oral cancer in men.
Nadipuram said that he has seen an increase of oral cancer patients, which primarily are men, however they do not check for HPV in patients, so was unable to judge whether there was a direct correlation.
Currently, there is no vaccination for men against HPV, only women. The vaccination, GARDASIL, became approved for usage in the U.S. in 2006 by Merck & Co., Inc., said Heather Collins, a spokeswoman in the global communications department at Merck & Co.
GARDASIL has been at the center of debate regarding whether or not to make it a requirement for young females, something that opponents say would encourage sexual activity.
Collins added that Merck & Co. is currently doing studies to see how efficient GARDASIL would work in men, and are set to submit the men's version of the vaccination for approval to the FDA before 2009.
"We want to get our ducks in a row before submitting any types of data," Collins said.
Be the first to comment on this story