Increasing numbers of Danish men are being diagnosed with HPV-caused oral cancer, DR reports. And a specialist believes there is a strong possibility it is linked to oral sex.
According to the data from the University of Aarhus, 243 men were diagnosed with oral cancer due to HPV (transmitted human papillomaviruses) in 2013.
Mostly, it is their tonsils that are infected.
Watch your sexual habits
Pernille Lassen, a doctor at the Department of Clinical Medicine, believes sexual habits are partly to blame.
"The number of different sexual partners and particularly oral sex, one could suspect, increase the risk of infection," Lassen told the broadcaster.
Research is still new
The Danish Cancer Society (Kræftens Bekæmpelse) warns that oral sex increases the risk of HPV infection.
Although the research is still very new, the organisation suggests HPV can also be transmitted through mouth-to-mouth contact.
Not all HPV causes cancer
However, not everyone infected with HPV will develop cancer.
As Rigshospital explains on its website, most sexually active men and women will, at some point in their life, get infected by HPV without serious repercussions.
