Sex-Related Cancer That Afflicted Michael Douglas Skyrocketing


But now research findings suggest he was may have been telling the truth. What’s more, he isn’t alone.

Health statistics in several affluent nations, including the U.S., reveal skyrocketing rates of throat and tongue cancers — often tied to sexually transmitted human papilloma virus (HPV) — among middle-aged people.

The latest research from the Australasian Association of Cancer Registries — a grouping of Australia’s state and territory registries plus neighboring New Zealand’s registry — make clear the connection between HPV and the rising cancer rates.

The research tracked patients diagnosed with oropharyngeal cancer between 1987 and 2010. Researchers found that only 20 percent of diagnoses were linked to HPV between 1987 and 1995. But between 2006 and 2010 the HPV-related cancer rate was more than three times as high — 64 percent.

While smoking is also a well-known risk factor for throat and oral cancer, the researchers also noted smoking rates generally declined during the same period of the study.

In fact, the number of people who’d never smoked but were diagnosed with throat cancer almost doubled during that time — from 19 percent to 34 percent — intensifying warnings that HPV may overtake nicotine and alcohol in the future as a cause of oropharyngeal cancers.   

In addition, rapidly growing numbers of patients with oropharyngeal cancers are testing positive for HPV, suggesting it caused the illness rather than heavy smoking or alcohol consumption, researchers say.

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