[quote]The fact is that because the fastest-growing segment of the OC population ... is now someone between 20 and 50 who is a non-smoker, predominantly white, educated, and with females slightly edging out males, they believe that HPV is the replacement causative agent keeping the numbers high and where this new sub-demographic is coming from.[/quote]With all the publicity about the new vaccine and HPV as the causative agent for cervical cancer -- the TV and magazine ads are everywhere! -- I wish there was more emphasis on the link to oral cancer as well. According to 2006 estimates on the American Cancer Society website, there will be about 9,700 cases of cervical cancer diagnosed in the US this year -- and about 30,000 cases of oral cancer. Granted, most of those OC cases will likely NOT be HPV-related, but still...

I notice that the prescribing information for Gardasil makes no mention of a connection between HPV and oral cancer. On the main part of the OCF site, I've seen several scientific studies on HPV in OC cases, including one last year from Sweden that found that about 35% of the cases studied were directly attributable to HPV. Brian or Gail, or anyone else who follows the figures and is knowledgeable about HPV, have these numbers just not reached "critical mass"? Is the idea of HPV as a cause for OC still too new that meaningful statistics are not yet available?

The vaccine is described in the prescribing information as "indicated in girls and women 9-26 years of age" -- you'd think that Merck would jump on links between HPV-16 (one of the four types the vaccine protects against, and the one most commonly found in studies of OC tumors) and oral cancer, as that would open the marketing to males as well. (Ka-ching!)