People who have had ten or more oral sex partners, according to new research, are 4.3 times more likely to develop oral and throat cancer associated with the papillomavirus.
Johns Hopkins University scientists have also found that oral sex at a younger age – and with more partners – also increases the risk of cancer caused by HPV.
“Our research helps patients and physicians answer the question, ‘Why did I develop HPV-related … cancer,’ co-author Dr Virginia Drake told UPI.
“The risk of infection is not just related to the number of lifelong oral sex partners, as timing of oral sex and type of partner also play a role,” said Drake, a chief and neck surgeon at Johns Hopkins.
In the U.S., just over 7 percent of all adults between the ages of 18 and 69 have HPV, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
About 45,000 people – 55 percent of their wives – are diagnosed with HPV-related cancers each year, the CDC estimates.
The team at Baltimore Hospital surveyed 163 adults with HPV-related oral and throat cancer – and 345 without these diseases – about their sexual behavior.
Having oral sex as an adolescent or teenager increased your risk of cancer by 80 percent, the researchers said. If they started younger and had more partners, they increased the risk by 180 percent, they said.
Meanwhile, people who had older sex partners when they were young and those who had extramarital sex were up to 70 percent more likely to have the disease, according to data quoted by UPI.
“People with HPV-associated … cancer have a wide spectrum of sexual history,” Drake said.
“As with all sexually transmitted diseases, new partners are at risk for infection, but most people who become infected clear the infection without developing cancer.”
In a statement, she said: ‘As the incidence of HPV-related oropharyngeal cancer continues to rise in the United States, our study provides a contemporary evaluation of risk factors for this disease.
“We’ve discovered additional nuances about how and why some people may develop this cancer, which may help identify those at greater risk,” Drake added.