Forum: Author Hangout

I would be interested to know whether those statistics apply equally to males and females.

This is why I don't trust statistical science. It's like when they said Coke Cola causes Cancer. It wasn't till you got to the end that they admit it would take drinking many cans a day over many years that the chance goes up.

When it comes to Cancer there are so many variables that come into play with the biggest one being DNA to say that one thing can cause it.

I wonder just how many cases did they look at to come up with this.

When they say 65% of Americans agree in such and such they are talking about 200,000,000 adults in 50 states yet they only asked 1,000 in 20 states.

There's more information if you follow the link to the full article on The Conversation: https://theconversation.com/oral-sex-is-now-the-leading-risk-factor-for-throat-cancer-204063.

The article notes that some countries have implemented HPV vaccinations in young girls as a preventative for cervical cancer and that there's some indirect evidence this may also provide boys with protection via herd immunity... but only in countries that have high vaccination rates.

The article explicitly calls out the US as a country that people are likely to travel to where vaccine coverage is low. Only 54.3% of US girls aged 13-15 have had the HPV vaccination compared to the UK's 85%. Not that anyone here should be having oral sex with a 13-15 year old girl.

Correlation is not causation.

That idea doesn't apply here. It is known the HPV causes cancer in mucous
membranes and that hpv proteins are detected in a majority of the cancers.
Exposure to more sexual partners increases the probability of exposure.

Correlation is not causation.

That idea doesn't apply here. It is known the HPV causes cancer in mucous membranes and that hpv proteins are detected in a majority of the cancers.
Exposure to more sexual partners increases the probability of exposure.

*slaps self*
It's always worth doing a quick check on existing research before posting.

From an Australian health site

Around 60% of pharyngeal and laryngeal cancers in Australia are caused by smoking; around 30% are caused by excess alcohol consumption.

....

Risk factors
smoking tobacco
excessive alcohol consumption
human papillomavirus (HPV)
epstein-barr virus (EBV)
poor diet
family history of cancer.

So while the vast majority of cancers are caused by smoking/heavy drinking, HPV of it's own can result in a significant elevated risk of throat cancer, along with significantly increasing the risk when in combination with other causative factors.

Not the same body parts. These are oropharyngeal cancers, not cancers of the esophagus or larynx.

Interesting! Here it's free for most women. It's done as a part of a school program if i recall correctly. There are like HPV vaccination drives from time to time. Usually for women. But if you're a dude and you want one, you can rock up to the clinic and ask for one.