Practice the oral sexand smoking increase the risk of developing oral cancer caused by the papillomavirus, according to the results of a study published in the journal Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA).
Researchers at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine in Baltimore, Maryland studied the medical data, sexual practices and tobacco use of 6,887 participants in a national health and nutrition survey. Of these, 2,012 were smoking tobacco at the time of the survey.
“The papillomavirus, detected in 80% of throat cancers, is transmitted by fellatio or cunnilingus ”, specify the authors of this study. “In the United States, this type of tumor has increased by 225% over the past twenty years”.
The papillomavirus was detected by mouth rinsing, and participants underwent blood and urine tests to detect two chemicals related to tobacco use, cotinine and NNAL.
The results of this study revealed that any increase in the level of cotinine in the blood, equivalent to three cigarettes per day, increased the risk of infection with HPV16 by 31%.
And, for every increase in the level of NNAL detected in urine, corresponding to four cigarettes a day, the probability of infection with HPV16 increased by 68%.
“It appears that tobacco increases the likelihood of oral infections with papillomavirus HPV16 and, although we do not yet know the reason, we suspect that a smoker’s organism might not get rid of this pathogen as easily, “says Dr Gypsyamber D’Souza, assistant professor of epidemiology.
“These results could be an additional reason to quit smoking and suggest that even a limited consumption of tobacco is linked to a high frequency of oral infection with HPV16”, concludes Dr Carole Fakhry, assistant professor of otorhinolaryngology at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, and study co-author.
