Hpv-related oral cancers on rise
Throat and oral cancers linked to the Human Papillomavirus (HPV) are increasingly being found among men who don’t smoke or drink.
Researchers have found that about 70 per cent of all throat cancers are caused by HPV, up from about 15 per cent 30 years ago.
There are, according to Dr. Anne Leis, a cancer researcher with the College of Medicine at the University of Saskatchewan, several strains of the HPV virus. But the oncogenic or cancerous ones are the HPV-16 and HPV-18 strains.
The HPV virus, which is responsible for cervical cancer in women, is transmitted through direct skin-toskin contact during sex. If transmitted during oral sex, it can result in throat cancer in both men and women.
The connection between oral sex and throat cancers recently came to media attention through reports that actor Michael Douglas had said his throat cancer was caused by an HPV infection he’d contracted through oral sex.
The actor later denied these reports.
Oral cancers caused by the HPV virus generally respond better to treatment than do those caused by smoking and drinking, says Dr. Saquib Shahab, chief medical health officer with the provincial health ministry.
But the traditional therapies, chemotherapy and radiotherapy, have not worked well for Reginan Chris Dayman, who, despite not drinking or smoking discovered he had oral cancer in October last year — believed to have been caused by HPV.
Dayman had a lump in his neck that, after a biopsy, was found to be cancerous.
He was told that his cancer originated from his tonsil. But during surgery to take out his tonsils, Dayman bled so profusely that the Regina General Hospital surgeons were successful in taking out only the left one.
“Good news is they found the cancer in that tonsil, so then I got into treatment — chemo and radiation for six weeks, Monday to Friday, twice on Fridays — through the Pasqua Hospital program and the cancer clinic (Allan Blair Cancer Centre),” said Dayman.
About a month ago, Dayman found out that the treatments had not been successful. They only reduced the tumour to half its original size.
“So they said the tumour is still there and I still have cancer,” he said.
At a more recent appointment, Dayman’s oncologists told him they needed to monitor the shrunken tumour for a while before they could do any subsequent treatments.
The cancer and treatments have left Dayman so weak that he is seeking a yoga instructor who will help him regain some strength and muscle tissue that has been replaced by fat.
In Saskatchewan, Shahab predicts between 50 and 60 men will be diagnosed with throat and oral cavity cancers this year. That number is lower for women, with about 30 of them expected to be diagnosed with these cancers.
Shahab said the HPV vaccine, which protects against 90 per cent of HPV infections, is given to all girls starting from Grade 6 on a voluntary basis, though some parents are preventing their daughters from getting it.
Currently, the vaccine is not available to boys in Saskatchewan even though the National Advisory Committee for Immunization recommended last year that men should get the HPV vaccine, too.
Prince Edward Island is the only province that makes the vaccine available to men.
“We are looking closely at this recommendation. The HPV vaccine is a very expensive vaccine and currently three doses are required to complete the vaccination schedule, so we are looking at if the price of the vaccine can come down,” said Shahab.
Shahab also said the government is considering the feasibility of giving only two doses to men as studies done by other provinces have shown two to be as effective as three.