HPV and Cancer
The potential for cancer to develop as a result of HPV is very real, and just one of the reasons that people should always, always practice safe sex, without exception.
Which types of HPV can lead to cancer?
Around a dozen or so strains of HPV can lead to cancer, with the most common of these being types 16, 18, 31, and 45. While cervical cancer tends to be the most common type of cancer resulting from HPV, cancer can also occur in the anus, the vulva and the penis, and type 16 has been associated with oropharyngeal squamous-cell carcinoma, which is a type of “head and neck” cancer.
Luckily, most HPV infections will not lead to cancer. However, the types that do generally show no visible signs of infection until the cancer has reached an advanced stage.
It is recommended that women have regular pap smears. As uncomfortable as a pap smear may be, it is absolutely necessary to ensure a long, healthy life. If HPV is developing into cervical cancer within your body, you won’t know until it reaches the late stages.
Playing Safe
For men and women, it’s a good idea to have a regular check up and a blood test now and then. Even if you think you’re not a high risk HPV candidate, the fact is that more than half of the human populace has been infected with some form of HPV, and it is estimated that at least 50% of sexually active people will contract a venereal HPV strain in their lives. True, most of these strains are relatively benign, and genital warts, while unsightly and uncomfortable, are hardly a terminal illness, but there’s no excuse to not practice safe sex and see your doctor now and then.
The high risk types
To clarify, only a certain number of HPV types are considered high risk. You are pretty much safe if you’re only dealing with hand warts, plantar warts, etcetera. The strains that are more likely to lead to cancer include genital HPV types 16, 18, 31, 33, 35, 39, 45, 51, 52, 56, 58, 59, 66, 68, and 73, with 16 and 18 leading to somewhere around 70% of cervical cancer. High risk types of HPV only show in flat, almost invisible genital warts, which is why they will usually need a blood test or pap smear to detect.
Genital warts are caused by types 6 and 11, and are considered low risk. As unpleasant as they are, they are not likely to lead to cancer, and can be safely removed or treated by a doctor with genital warts treatments and wart removal methods (it should be noted, we don’t recommend trying to treat HPV warts yourself until you’ve asked your doctor how to remove warts, and other wart treatment options).
It is estimated that, worldwide, there are around 473,000 cases of cervical cancer per year, with 253,000 resulting in death. To put that in perspective, about 500,000 women die from breast cancer each year.
This doesn’t have to be the case. Cervical cancer can be prevented by practicing safe sex, by having regular checkups conducted, and more recently, by a relatively new HPV vaccination.
Be careful, know your sex partner’s history, see your doctor and ask questions.
Brian says:
Thank you for not recommending circumcision to prevent HPV. Removing normal healthy body parts to prevent infection should not have a place in modern medicine.
December 26th, 2008 at 2:04 am