Well, huh...
Oral Cancer in Men Associated With HPV
By NICHOLAS BAKALARThe sexually transmitted virus called HPV, for human papillomavirus, is well known to lead to cervical cancer in women — which is why the federal government recommends that all girls be vaccinated for HPV at 11 or 12, before they become sexually active.
Now researchers are finding that many oral cancers in men are also associated with the virus.
A clinical trial testing therapies for advanced tongue and tonsil cancers has found that more than 40 percent of the tumors in men were infected with HPV. If there is good news in the finding, it is that these HPV-associated tumors were among the most responsive to treatment.
Of an estimated 28,900 cases of oral cancer a year, 18,550 are in men.
“The high risk of HPV-associated cancers in men suggests that vaccinating all adolescents is something that should strongly be considered,” said the lead researcher, Dr. Francis P. Worden, a clinical assistant professor of medicine at the University of Michigan.
HPV can enter the mouth during oral sex. A study published in February by researchers at Johns Hopkins estimated that 38 percent of oral squamous-cell cancers are HPV related, and suggested that their increasing number might be a result of changing sexual behaviors.
PZ Myers makes a very good point:
If it turns out that HPV is not just a source of Cervical Cancer, but oral cancer in men (well, anyone that is a cunning linguist. ;P ), will this force the Fundies to allow the vaccine in not only their precious virginal girl folk but for their really important children…the boys.
Or, as I assume will happen, they will scream louder for the failed abstinence only programs and for the return of the Sodomy Laws.