My friends over at That's Fit recently posted this item about one of the leading causes of throat cancer -- Oral sex. The threat is so serious, in fact, that it beats the risk associated with smoking or drinking alcohol by nine times. Surprised? I am.

But the connection between throat cancer and oral sex is also linked to HPV (Human papillomavirus), a sexually transmitted disease that increases the chance of contracting cervical cancer in Women. What's even more scary is that it's estimated that 80% of Women contract HPV at some point during their life. And as Jonathon points out, the strong connection between HPV and cancer of the genitals should lead us to anticipate that the virus can cause cancer in other parts of our bodies too.

Still, the statistics -- especially that oral sex is nine-time more likely to give you throat cancer than smoking -- are pretty alarming. Don't you think?

The international health group PATH has received an infusion of cash from Microsoft's Bill Gates to support the launch of a program that will provide the new cervical cancer vaccines to women in poor countries. With a $27.8 million grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, PATH will begin in India, Peru, Uganda and Vietnam. Of the 250,000 women who die from cervical cancer each year, most of them live in the world's poorest countries. 

The sexually-transmitted human papillomavirus, HPV, is believed to be responsible for nearly three-fourths of cervical cancer diagnosis. Two cervical cancer vaccines, Merck's Gardasil and GlaxoSmithKline's Cervarix, will become available this year to protect women from the virus. In previous posts, we wondered what would happen to women who live in poor countries and how the cancer vaccine would be made available for them. This sounds like a start.

In a study just released by Dartmouth Medical School researchers, not all cervical cancer vaccines work the same or offer the same benefits. Comparing Cervarix to Gardasil, both cervical cancer vaccines designed to protect against the human papillomavirus, HPV, found Cervarix to be longer-lasting and provides protection against multiple strains of virus linked to the development of cancer. Gardasil does not offer these same benefits. Gardasil does offer protection against HPV strains associated with genital warts, which Cervarix does not offer.

Cervarix offers high level protection against HPV types 16 and 18 for up to 4.5 years, and cross-protects against HPV-45 and 31, two other strains of the virus associated with cancer. According to the researchers, the long-term response appears to be due to the use of the adjuvant ASO4 with Cervarix rather than the adjuvant alum that is used in the Gardasil vaccine. This is significant because a vaccine that uses adjuvant alum needs to be administered around the time of exposure, so timing is important to vaccine protection. However, a vaccine that uses adjuvant ASO4 can be administered at any time to offer protection. Gardasil uses adjuvant alum, Cervarix uses adjuvant ASO4. When these cervical cancer vaccines are approved for use, I wonder if women are going to faced with the decision of what type of protection they want and in what form. Or will they find a way to combine the benefits of both into one vaccine? Important information for women to keep in mind when the vaccine becomes available, because there are critical differences between the two vaccines mentioned in this post. 

Dartmouth Medical School researchers have discovered that the same human papillomavirus, HPV, which has been linked to cervical cancer, is also linked to skin cancer. "Although sun exposure and sun sensitivity are the major risk factors for skin cancers, our data support a role of HPV, particularly beta HPV, in the development of squamous cell carcinoma," states Dr. Margaret Karagas, of Dartmouth Medical School’s Norris Cotton Cancer Center.

New technology based on fluorescent bead technology that can detect viral antibodies allowed researchers to identify the virus in skin cancer samples. To investigate all the possibilities contributing to the development of skin cancer, researchers conducted one-on-one interviews with the study participants about lifestyle habits, such as drinking and smoking, medical and family history, their usual level of sun exposure and their skin’s sensitivity to sun. When this information was compiled and analyzed, the researchers still found an association between HPV and squamous skin cancer.