Oral sex linked to cancer risk US scientists said Sunday there
is strong evidence linking oral sex to cancer, and urged more
study of how human papillomaviruses may be to blame for a rise
in oral cancer among white men. In the United States, oral
cancer due to HPV infection is now more common than oral cancer
from tobacco use, which remains the leading cause of such
cancers in the rest of the world. Researchers have found a
225-percent increase in oral cancer cases in the United States
from 1974 to 2007, mainly among white men, said Maura Gillison
of Ohio State University. "When you compare people who have an
oral infection or not... the single greatest factor is the
number of partners on whom the person has performed oral sex,"
said Gillison, who has been researching HPV and cancer for 15
years. "When the number of partners increases, the risk
increases," she told reporters at the American Association for
the Advancement of Science meeting in Washington. Previous
studies have suggested that people who have p