The ACS estimates there will be 13,500 new cases of oropharyngeal cancer in the U.S. this year. This includes both HPV positive and negative cases; nearly 11,000 men and over 2,500 women will be affected; some 2,300 will succumb to this condition. Between 1999 and 2008, the rate of HPV positive oropharyngeal cancers by rose 4.4 percent per year in white men and by 1.9 percent per year in white women. The biggest rise emerged in men between the ages of 55 and 64 years. (via Is Oral Sex to Blame for the Surge in Cancer of the Mouth and Throat? - Elaine Schattner - Health - The Atlantic, the report.)
“The epidemiology is perplexing,” he says. “The assumption, when we noticed the trend eight or nine years ago, was that this was a sexually transmitted disease due to more oral sex,” he says. “But at least at Georgetown, we have patients in their 80s with this kind of cancer,” he notes. “That raises questions about the sexual habits of Americans who are older, or about HPV.”
