Throat cancer 'caused by oral sex' says Michael Douglas

dowie · 3 Jun 2013 at 20:37

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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-22751349

When asked whether he now regretted his years of smoking and drinking - common causes of oral cancer - the 68-year-old replied "No.

"Because without wanting to get too specific, this particular cancer is caused by HPV which actually comes about from cunnilingus," he said.

He didn't want to get specific... then got very specific...

I wonder how many girls on average would someone have to go down on to be likely to get cancer this way?

Also ... in b4 someone points out that the news has promoted Angelina Jolie to have her vagina removed just in case...

LOAM · 3 Jun 2013 at 20:41

So its Catherine's fault then ?

Biohazard · 3 Jun 2013 at 20:42

I lol'd at it earlier too.

Unprotected oral sex does give increased risk towards cancer, I can't remember by how much though. Strangely, you are less likely to catch some sexual infections by oral sex than vaginal/anal, but again cannot remember much more than that.

Flange and willy does cause cancer though. So be careful kids.

PooBrain · 3 Jun 2013 at 20:52

...so glad i'm a complete virgin.

MrMoonX · 3 Jun 2013 at 20:54

Mmmm fish supper

koolpc · 3 Jun 2013 at 20:55

PooBrain said:
...so glad i'm a complete virgin.

Watch your hands though! lol

Trifid · 3 Jun 2013 at 20:56

And here was me thinking this was a daily mail thread.

Raymond Lin · 3 Jun 2013 at 20:59

I didn't know he is a doctor.

scorza · 3 Jun 2013 at 21:05

Heard on the radio that in Australia they routinely vaccinate male and female school children against the HPV. Seems like a good idea to me - bet administering the vaccine costs a lot less than treating throat cancer.

The other thing that I learnt by listening to the radio this morning was that HPV is rampant, but most of the time your immune system kills it off after a few days. Only in a few cases does the disease become persistent, which is when it can cause cancer.

St.Josh · 3 Jun 2013 at 21:12

Raymond Lin said:
I didn't know he is a doctor.

I don't think he's claiming to be a medical proffesional but I believe he would have a fair bit of knowledge on the subject seeing as he had it.

Glaucus · 3 Jun 2013 at 21:13

Apparently he didn't say it was def because of it, but its one cause.
Also apparently ~2/3rds of throat cancer in America is caused by HPV as well as large portion of anal and other cancers.
Yet we in the UK can't possibly routinely vaccinate at a young age as some how it encourages underage sex. Retards.

RobDogDog · 3 Jun 2013 at 21:14

Sounds like a cunning stunt to me.

merlin · 3 Jun 2013 at 21:19

His wife must be living in awkwardville right now.

One More Solo · 3 Jun 2013 at 21:19

Glaucus said:
Apparently he didn't say it was def because of it, but its one cause.
Also apparently ~2/3rds of throat cancer in America is caused by HPV as well as large portion of anal and other cancers.
Yet we in the UK can't possibly routinely vaccinate at a young age as some how it encourages underage sex. Retards.

Eh? All 12 and 13 year old girls are vaccinated against HPV now here. Surely that's young enough? And there have been calls for boys to get it too.

Glaucus · 3 Jun 2013 at 21:20

Not really is it, it needs to be done before they become sexually active. Why do it so late after we all know some are active, it should be done much earlier. How on earth does it encourage anything.

James J · 3 Jun 2013 at 21:21

One More Solo said:
Eh? All 12 and 13 year old girls are vaccinated against HPV now here. Surely that's young enough? And there have been calls for boys to get it too.

Neither vaccine protects against all strains of HPV though, just the main 6 (but you'd need BOTH vaccines to be protected against those).

Problem is, the vaccines are for those that cause cervical cancer in women, with the other hundred or so species all having little to no information regarding other forms of cancer depending on tissue type and contact, aka oral mucosa etc.

One More Solo · 3 Jun 2013 at 21:24

Glaucus said:
Not really is it, it needs to be done before they become sexually active. Why do it so late after we all know some are active, it should be done much earlier. How on earth does it encourage anything.

If kids are sexually active before 12 then they have bigger problems than HPV.

I also expect the current scale of vaccinations offered is done so very much on a cost/benefit basis.

inogen · 3 Jun 2013 at 21:24

One More Solo said:
Eh? All 12 and 13 year old girls are vaccinated against HPV now here. Surely that's young enough? And there have been calls for boys to get it too.

It's not all though. I heard an oncologist on the radio this morning saying they don't even vaccinate 85% of girls. From what she was saying, our vaccination programme is mostly useless. She suggested they should be aiming at 95% of boys and girls if it was to be effective.

Glaucus · 3 Jun 2013 at 21:25

How does it cost anymore to do it earlier. Silly argument.
What benefit is there to wait till they are older?
You haven't put one good reason to wait. All you do is increase the infected population by waiting.

James J · 3 Jun 2013 at 21:29

inogen said:
It's not all though. I heard an oncologist on the radio this morning saying they don't even vaccinate 85% of girls. From what she was saying, our vaccination programme is mostly useless. She suggested they should be aiming at 95% of boys and girls if it was to be effective.

Because they isn't a "one fits all" vaccine, as I said above. Until both pharmaceutical companies make either a better version of what they currently offer, or a combination therapy (which wont happen), vaccination for HPV proves extremely hard to be effective.

I've seen samples where the woman has had one of the HPV vaccines and still shown serious signs of dyskaryosis upon sectioning and staining.