i dont have hpv Yes you can and yes there is treatment but there is NO cure. Once you have this disease you have it for life. You will take it to the grave with you. Learn all you can about this because you have it for the rest of your life.
JED Technically, you can, BUT it is VERY uncommon to get genital warts in your mouth from HPV. The warts can be treated, and contrary to what most people say, my doctor told me that your body will likely begin to build up an immunity to the virus and get rid of it on its own. Unlike Herpes and some other STDs, it doesn't necessarily stay in your system forever. Also, unfortunately condoms don't do much to protect from genital warts since condoms don't cover all the places people can have them. They are spread from skin-to-skin contact, and not from bodily fluids.
Keep an eye on it, and just try to be more careful in the future! If you have oral sex with someone who has HPV then you can acquire the virus of the oral area. A dentist can check your oral area for precancer cell changes.
More information on oral HPV www.oralcancerfoundation.org
Here is a recent article on HPV in the oral area.
More throat, mouth cancers linked to HPV
Many young nonsmokers get disease as result of contracting virus from
oral sexual contact
By Jill Coley
The Post and Courier
Monday, January 14, 2008
Many young nonsmokers get disease as result of contracting virus from
oral sexual contact
By the numbers:
--Head and neck cancer is the sixth-most-common form of cancer in the
United States.
--40,000 cases are diagnosed annually.
--25 percent, or 10,000 cases, might be attributable to a strain of
human papillomavirus.
--South Carolina ranks second in oral cancer rates and second in
mortality for oral cancer.
About once a week, Dr. Boyd Gillespie shocks a young nonsmoker with
the diagnosis that he has cancer in the back of his mouth.
Most oral cancers are related to a lifetime of tobacco or alcohol
abuse, but that profile is changing.
Gillespie, a head and neck cancer surgeon at the Medical University
of South Carolina's Hollings Cancer Center, is seeing an increasing
number of patients who are young, have little if any smoking history
and have cancers predominantly of the tonsil and the back of the
tongue.
The culprit is human papillomavirus, or HPV, the same sexually
transmitted virus that causes cervical cancer. The oral cancer does
not discriminate between sexes, striking men and women at equal
rates, Gillespie said.
About 25 percent of the 40,000 head and neck cancers annually in the
United States, or about 10,000 cases, might be attributable to HPV,
Gillespie said. A decade ago, the number of mouth cancers related to
the virus was nearly zero.
It's a trend that other head and neck practitioners around the
country also have witnessed, he said. Boyd and virologist Natalie
Sutkowski have studied and confirmed that factors such as age,
smoking history and tumor location and appearance are highly
predictive of which tumors are caused by HPV.
Risk factors are similar to those for cervical cancer: younger age of
first sexual intercourse and multiple sexual partners. With throat
and mouth cancers, oral sexual contact also is a factor.
"Oral sex is probably a bigger part of first sexual contact than
maybe it was in the past," Gillespie said. A 2005 national study
reported that more than half of U.S. teenagers from 15 to 19 had
engaged in oral sex. That percentage jumped to 70 percent by ages 18
and 19.
But the complete story of the virus's transmission is not
known. "It's unclear if it's only passed through sexual contact,"
Sutkowski said. "It would not be impossible in my mind that it could
be passed through kissing." A recent study in Nature Clinical
Practice Oncology reported that "direct mouth-to-mouth contact or
other means could not be excluded."
Another factor contributing to the rise in HPV-related oral cancers
could be that doctors 10 years ago didn't necessarily look for the
virus, Sutkowski said, and methods of testing have improved.
Also, more people smoked 10 years ago, so it was easier to blame
tobacco.
But as more patients in their 20s and 30s appeared who didn't smoke
or abuse alcohol, the medical community took note.
Symptoms of HPV-related oral cancer include a visible growth or
lesion on the tonsils or the base of the tongue that might affect
speech or swallowing.
The ulcer might be sore, might bleed and could cause hoarseness.
Gillespie recommends patients seek medical attention if they've had
symptoms for a month or longer.
Some positive news is that HPV-related oral cancers have a good
prognosis. But early intervention is key, Gillespie said, as survival
rates fall from 90 percent to 50 percent when the cancer spreads to
the lymph nodes.
To help people get medical attention early, the Hollings Cancer
Center will open the Oral Lesion Clinic this month. The clinic will
be staffed by a head and neck surgeon and an oral pathologist who
will evaluate sores, ulcers and growths in the mouth or throat. A
majority of patients will be referred by doctors or dentists.
The increased attention could lead to a push in boys receiving the
HPV vaccine, marketed as Gardasil by Merck.
There are more than 100 strains of HPV, about 13 of which are
considered high-risk.
The vaccine protects against four types: HPV-16, which is responsible
for half of cervical cancers and the majority of virus-related mouth
and throat cancers, HPV-18, which is also responsible for cervical
cancers, and strains 11 and 6, which are associated with genital
warts.
Whether the vaccine protects against oral cancer remains to be seen
but seems logical, Boyd said.
"Our hope is that by reducing the number of people incubating HPV-16
in the community, we will also see a dropoff of throat cancer."
From virus to tumor
How a virus interacts with tissue and becomes a tumor is complicated.
Virologist Natalie Sutkowski might have unlocked one process that
contributes to human papillomavirus's transformation to cancer.
Sutkowski has discovered an ancient viral conversation that takes
place when HPV meets human DNA.
About 8 percent of human DNA is derived from virus particles that
have worked their way into the human genome over millions of years,
Sutkowski said.
Normally, these viral particles do nothing. But when HPV is
introduced, the viral particles are activated and cause inflammation.
The increased blood flow, in turn, nourishes tumors.
"It's known that inflammation helps tumors grow," Sutkowski
said. "And these viral particles turn on inflammation. So maybe it's
just as simple as that 鈥?the inflammation may be helping tumors grow."
Sutkowski, working closely with head and neck cancer surgeon Boyd
Gillespie, is now turning her attention to searching for drugs to
inhibit these ancient genes, stop the inflammation and interrupt the
tumors' growth. |
