Does HPV Cause Oral Cancer?
Brian Hill, the founder and executive director of the Oral Cancer Foundation, did not have any of the common risk factors for oral cancer, yet when he was diagnosed, he had a Stage IV disease. It turns out that I had an HPV-positive tumor, says Hill. Because of HPV, high risk groups are no longer easily defined. The HPV group is the fastest growing segment of oral cancer patients. Many scientists believe that the human papillomavirus (HPV) types 16 and 18a cause of papillomas (warts) and cervical cancer in womenwhich are known to cause 95 percent of all cervical cancers, also are the cause of some cases of oropharyngeal cancer in both women and men. Scientists have explored the association between HPV and oral cancers for more than 20 years. A recent study conducted at Johns Hopkins University and published in the New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM, May 10, 2007), shows that HPV exposure and infection increase the risk of oropharyngeal squamous cell cancer independent of the other t
