A new study funded by World Health Organization discovered that blood tests can be done to detect those who at risk of developing mouth and throat cancers.
Paul Brennan, lead author of the study who works for WHO’s International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), discovered that antibodies that carry the human papillomavirus (HPV) virus that causes oral cancers could be detected through blood screening and other tools.
The HPV virus is often associated to cervical and other genital cancers but is now responsible for the cases of mouth and throat cancers reported by men. The number of oral cancer cases is increasing ever since the Hollywood actor Michael Douglas revealed that he acquired the cancer due to oral sex.
The research team studied 638 cases of head and neck cancers: 180 oral cancers, 135 oropharynx cancers, and 247 larynx cancers. They also looked at 300 patients with esophageal cancers. Over six years, the team collected blood samples of the participants and looked for the presence of antibodies for the HPV virus.
Their analysis revealed that 34.8 percent of the oropharyngeal cancer patients carried the HPV 16 antibodies. In addition, they also discovered that those have been in their bloodstream for almost 10 years.
This concluded that HPV early detection is possible and people can undergo blood screening to see if they were at high risk of developing mouth and throat cancers.
Based on the data gathered by IARC, about 30 percent of oral cancers are caused by the HPV virus especially the virus called HPV 16. There were over 40 types of HPV affecting up to 10 percent of the female population.
The study was published in the June 17 issue of Journal of Clinical Oncology titled Evaluation of Human Papillomavirus Antibodies and Risk of Subsequent Head and Neck Cancer.
