I have been hearing too much today about sex maybe a cause of cancer? wow. How are they saying that? I mean my first Dr that I fired told me when I showed him that spot in my mouth his first words were its cancer which I knew to be true, then he said it could be herpes, and then he said gingivitius. He tried treating me for gingivitus but I already knew the cold hard truth, but how do they get sex causeing cancer? I never thought to ask a real Dr about it. My Rad Dr could answer me if I would remember to ask but I was just watching a commercail and it blew my mind.
I am just confused. Brenda

I can only guess he was refering to the link between HPV,oral sex and oral cancer.You will find all the information you need on this subject in the information bar situated on the left hand side of the home page.Alternatively use the search engine at the top of this page.

Strange how lifes pleasures can also be a downfall. I guess the largest percentage of humans are guilty. If you think back a few years, we were told mustard, coffee, and many more things were being linked to cancer by the ones considered experts and then in a few weeks, the story would be retracted and something else added to the list of causes,. This is one I am keeping in my memory bank .

In my opinion HPV was labeled a STD out of ignorance because it can easily be transferred by touching and kissing. I have had many detailed discussions with doctors that should know and quite frankly the jury seems to still be out as to how we get HPV. I'm confident that someday medical science will have a better understanding so until then I will keep quiet.....yeah right!!

David-

I think your comment above is on target. A close friend studies HPV at the National Cancer Institute and research has shown that condoms do not prevent HPV as they do most STDs(they MAY minimize likelihood). This tells us how much we don't yet know about various modes of transmission of the virus. About 80% of sexually active young adults have at least one strain of HPV at some time (and most prevalent are the strains that can lead to cancer). However, since most people are sexually active by a certain age, that's not "proving" that ONLY penetrative sexual activities cause HPV.

Brenda... I love your avatar too...!

If anyone researches this they will wee that HPV is the most commonly transferred sexual disease (STD) according to the CDC. We have known about its sexual transfer for ever and a day since it is the cause of cervical cancer and IS transferred sexually. The earliest understanding of this component of its nature was a century ago when a researcher in France noticed that nuns there never got cervical cancer but prostitutes did.

Checking the NCI for information on an STD is the wrong source since most STD's (including HPV) do not cause cancer. The CDC would be the best source for public information. We also know much about how it is transfered, in the vast majority just epithelial cells touching other epithelial cells. It does not require a fluid transfer like some (HIV). It does not require any penatrative action for transfer. Ever wonder why your very young kids come home from pre school and have warts on their hands? They touch other kids that have it, it isn't any more difficult than that.

What we know less about is all the ways that it can be transferred to the oral environment (that would be the correct issue as it relates to oral cancers) not how it is transferred in the vast majority of the cases, which we do understand in detail. Also the versions that are known to be cancer causing or oncogenic, are only a few of the more than 112 version out there. They are NOT the most prevalent HPV's. Most versions of the virus we don't even know what they do, perhaps nothing at all but exist benignly in our body. in the most common versions (which are not the oncogenic ones) it causes papillomas which are unbelievably common (warts).

I am all for people that have had this touch their lives get the word out. But if you guys are going to talk to people about this issue, you need to get some of the basic facts right.

Thank you. As a rule I tend not to read what I really don't want to know about, however since I started down the road I do read everything I see. Sometimes I need a good swift kick in the butt to be able to find the answers I am looking for. I confess I am dumb at times and do not understand what I have read And what I can't get through my mind id that ' some cancers are sexually transfered?' I need to do more research on this. I really like this site because I can post dumb questions and silly post and no one tells me how dumb I am. Remember in the early 80s they wanted us to stop using cast iron because it was linked to cancer? And what about the increedible edible egg? I don't know what to believe, Thanks tons Brenda

There is a difference between being dumb and being ignorant. Everyone is ignorant of something, and most of tons of things. Dumb is a different thing. Don't call yourself dumb just because you don't understand something, that is just a lack of knowledge... easily rectified. Dumb is a human trait that is too many times forever.

There are 7 cancers that are directly caused by viruses. Viruses can be transfered between people. Sometimes that transfer mechanism is via sexual contact. There is nothing more to it than that. This is taken from this OCF web page
http://www.oralcancerfoundation.org/HPV/index.htm

Misunderstanding commonly results when people group viruses and bacteria into the same category of disease. Bacteria and viruses are two completely different organisms, each functioning in different and unique ways. Bacteria are one-celled organisms capable of living and reproducing independently. The major parts of a bacterium cell are; a cell wall, cytoplasm, and a nucleoid. The cell wall protects the cell and gives it shape. The cytoplasm is the fluid inside the cell where cell growth, replication, and metabolism are carried out. The cytoplasm also contains all the components for these actions such as the nucleoid, ribosomes, and plasmids. The nucleoid is the region in the cytoplasm where the strands of DNA are located. Bacteria cells reproduce through a process called binary fission. In this process, a single bacterium cell grows to twice its normal size and splits into two daughter cells. These two new daughter cells are exact copies of the original cell. When bacteria infect a body, they do so by multiplying inside the organism and producing toxins that infect surrounding cells or tissues. But very few bacteria are harmful. 99% of the bacteria found in the body are helpful, and most are actually necessary for life. Harmful disease-causing bacteria can be eliminated or killed with antibiotics.

Viruses on the other hand, exist and function in an entirely different manner than bacteria. They are not an independent organism. When a virus is alone it is not metabolically active like bacteria; it needs a host cell to function, and in which to reproduce. A virus is composed of only a protein capsule that encloses its DNA or RNA. When a virus comes in contact with a cell, it is capable of inserting its genetic material into that host cell and taking over the functions of that cell.

OK so here's the take away from all this, and when you get it, you are no longer ignorant. Taking over the functions of the cell, can be things like destroying some of the important components of the cell such as the genetic information that it carries and which control the cells functions. If it kills gene p53 for instance, that makes the cell immortal. (HPV does this) If it destroys rb, which is the tumor suppressor gene, the cell can no longer signal the immune system that it is damaged and attract our various immune responses to come and destroy it. HPV does this too. Now we have a cell that is on its way to becoming malignant or cancerous. When that cell duplicates itself, it makes copies that already have these changes in them. A bunch of these begin to collect together as more and more of them duplicate and you have a group of them. This would be what we think of as a tumor. So while this is a very simplified description of what happens, you can see that something as simple as a virus can become something deadly.

Cookey, your avatar reminds me of the dog, in a round house looking for a corner to pee in. LOL I have no idea where you found him, but he sure is cute.