Oral cancer rates going up for U.S. men; link to HPV is eyed

Oral cancer is on the rise in American men, with health insurance claims for the condition jumping 61 percent from 2011 to 2015, according to a new analysis.

The most dramatic increases were in throat cancer and tongue cancer, and the data show that claims were nearly three times as common in men as in women during that same period with a split of 74 percent to 26 percent.

The startling numbers - published in a report by FAIR Health, an independent nonprofit - are based on a database of more than 21 billion privately billed medical and dental claims.

The American Cancer Society estimates that nearly 50,000 Americans will be infected this year, with 9,500 dying from the disease. In past generations, oral cancer was mostly linked to smoking, alcohol use, or a combination of the two. But even as smoking rates have fallen, oral cancer rates have remained about the same, and this may be caused by HPV, which infects cells of the skin and the membranes that lines areas such as the mouth, throat, tongue, tonsils, rectum and sexual organs. Transmission can occur when these areas come into contact with the virus. HPV is a leading cause of cervical, vaginal and penile cancers.

- Washington Post