Painstaking academic research indicates that promiscuous oral
sex can carry a higher risk of throat cancer than smoking or
boozing.
A report based on a hospital study of 100 oropharyngeal cancer
sufferers and 200 controls, carried out by Johns Hopkins
scientists, appeared today in the New England Journal of Medicine.
In it, the splendidly-named Dr Gypsyamber D'Souza and her
co-authors make some noteworthy conclusions.
"A high lifetime number of vaginal-sex partners (26 or more) was
associated with oropharyngeal cancer," the boffins wrote. It's hard
to say what that really means in terms of rumpy-associated risk;
but El Reg suggests that it does offer at least one piece of
concrete info. Namely, that if you are a Johns Hopkins scientist,
chances are you have done it with significantly less than 26
people.
According to the scientists, oral sex is a vastly more dangerous
business than plain-vanilla rogering, with just six or more
partners required to increase the danger of throat cancer. Again it
seemed that the Johns Hopkins crew had perhaps led relatively quiet
lives, as they considered that half-a-dozen was a "high" final
score.
The increased multipartner-jigjig throat cancer risk was due to the
likelihood of becoming infected with human papillomavirus (HPV),
thought to be implicated in various kinds of cancer including the
cervical variety.
The study appeared to suggest that throat-cancer risks from booze
and cigs were insignificant compared to those from getting too
frisky. Of course, that doesn't mean that drink and baccy are safer
than the other things you might - in this context - put in your
mouth. Oral sex doesn't (as far we as we know) cause liver failure
or lung cancer. So don't log off that swingers' site and rush out
for a sixpack or 20 Bensons just yet.
On the face of it, however, this really is excellent news for cigar
fanciers, who seldom breathe the fumes of their chosen weed into
their lungs and so avoid many of the risks faced by aficionados of
the smaller, more economical paper-wrapped smoke. One of
cigar-lovers' primary risks is that of cancer in the throat or
mouth; and it now appears that this danger is actually
insignificant.
Of course, certain circumstances leap to mind in which this might
not be true. It seems possible that former US President Bill
Clinton may be reading the New England Journal of Medicine with
close attention this afternoon. ®
