Doctors warn they are seeing cases of throat cancer in “much younger patients” and suggest oral sex is driving this worrying trend.
A new report shows hundreds more people are dying from the disease than before the Covid pandemic, with cases increasing by almost 50 per cent since 2013.
Since the early 1990s, incidence rates have increased by more than a third in Britain, according to Cancer Research UK.
But for women ages 25 to 49, rates have increased by 60 percent and for men by 34 percent between 1993 and 2019.
Smoking, alcohol and human papillomavirus (HPV), a normally harmless virus that is transmitted sexually and through skin contact, are believed to be behind the increase.
Every year there are around 12,800 new head and neck cancers in the UK and around 71,100 in the UK.
A new report, prepared by the Office for Health Improvement and Disparities (OHID) and the University of Sheffield, analyzed data from 2013 to 2020.
It found that head and neck cancer cases reached 10,735 in England in 2019, before the Covid-19 pandemic.
However, in 2021 this number has reached 11,000.
In 2020, 3,469 people died from head and neck cancer, up from 3,313 deaths in 2019.
OHID said the rise had been driven by an increase in oropharyngeal cancer, a form of the disease that starts in the part of the throat just behind the mouth and includes cancer of the tonsils and cancer on the back of the tongue.
Figures show there were 3,834 new cases of oropharyngeal cancer in 2019, an increase of 47 per cent since 2013.
There are already around 13,000 new head and neck cancers diagnosed each year in the UK and around 71,100 in the US.
But experts predict cases will increase by a further 3 per cent in the UK between 2023-2025 and 2038-2040, according to Cancer Research UK.
Since the early 1990s, cancer incidence rates have increased by more than a third (35 per cent) in Britain, according to data from Cancer Research UK. But for women aged 25 to 49, rates increased by 60 percent between 1993 and 2019 (source: Cancer Research UK)
Data also shows an increase in the number of men with head and neck cancer, with a 34 per cent increase since 1993 (source: Cancer Research UK)
This data shows that in the UK throat cancer cases have been on an upward trend, as in the US (source: Cancer Research UK)
Professor Ali Khurram, expert on the disease from the University of Sheffield, added: “Head and neck cancer can have a devastating effect on the lives of people with the disease and their families.”
‘Although head and neck cancer is one of the most common cancers in England with significantly worse survival compared to other cancers, its awareness among the public, healthcare professionals and funding organizations is low.
“This report, which is the first of its kind, offers an opportunity to push for action to reverse these worrying trends.”
Doctors have discovered that oral sex is the biggest risk factor for this type of cancer, surpassing smoking, alcohol consumption and an unhealthy diet.
This is because these acts can lead to an HPV infection in the back of the throat or near the tonsil.
Head and neck cancer incidence rates in the UK are highest in people aged 65 to 69, but doctors say they are seeing more cases in young people under 50.
Professor Khurram said: “There is little awareness about the disease and the causal factors. We are now seeing these cancers in much younger patients.
‘A significant proportion of the increase can be attributed to HPV infection (tonsil cancer), but the majority is still related to smoking or chewing tobacco and alcohol, which are increasingly consumed.
‘Poor oral health and socioeconomic factors also contribute to the increased incidence. We also have an increasingly aging population, which is at much higher risk of these cancers.’
Dr. Hisham Mehanna, from the University of Birmingham, in the United Kingdom, said that 70 percent of throat cancer cases are caused by HPV, which has been linked to multiple forms of cancer.
He said people with multiple oral sex partners have up to a nine-fold increased risk of throat cancer, also known as oropharyngeal cancer.
he wrote in The conversation that there has been a “rapidly increasing throat cancer in the West” to the point that some have called “an epidemic.”
According to research, around eight in 10 people will carry HPV in their body at some point and around a third of the population will be infected at any one time.
It is most commonly found in and around the genitals and generally does not cause problems: since the virus is so harmless, the body’s immune system does not try to fight it naturally.
However, for reasons that are not fully understood, the virus can invade the body’s tissues and trigger changes in cells that lead to cancer.
There are more than 150 types of HPV, but only about 12 can cause cancer. HPV 16 and 18 are the most common high-risk strains that can cause oropharyngeal cancer.
Getting HPV has been shown to increase the risk of several types of cancer, including cervical, oral, anus, penile, and vaginal cancers.
HPV vaccine, offered to all 12- and 13-year-old schoolchildren, more than halved rates of head and neck cancer, study finds
Oropharyngeal cancers affect men more than women, however, it is not clear whether cunnilingus (oral sex performed on a woman) is riskier in terms of HPV transmission than fellatio (oral sex performed on a man). ).
Research suggests that the vast majority (85.4 percent) and women (83.2 percent) engage in oral sex during intimacy.
HPV has been shown to increase the risk of several types of cancer, including those of the cervix, mouth, anus, penis and vagina.
There is a vaccine against HPV. It is more than 80 percent effective and is available in much of the developed world.
It is a two-dose vaccine that is now available for children between 11 and 12 years old. The injections are given 12 months apart.
Only 67.2 percent of girls were fully vaccinated in 2021/22, down from a high of 86.7 percent in 2013/14. Around 62.4 per cent of children, who have been offered the vaccine on the NHS since 2019, were vaccinated in the most recent school year, NHS data shows.
For people who missed that window, a three-dose shot is available for people ages 15 to 26.
The vaccine has been offered to girls in England and Wales since September 2008 before expanding to include boys in 2019.
But the vaccine not only helps prevent cervical cancer, it has also been shown to be effective in reducing rates of head and neck cancer.
Rates have fallen from 6.3 cases to 2.8 cases per 100,000 men, according to a study involving more than 5 million men and women in the United States.