Study links virus to rare cancer in heterosexual men

[FreeState]

Source: ARIZONA DAILY STAR

Preliminary research by UA scientists suggests that a virus linked to cervical cancer in women also may pose a cancer threat to heterosexual men.

While the effects of the human papillomavirus — HPV — in women have been well-documented, results from an Arizona Cancer Center study released on Monday show that sexually active heterosexual men could be making themselves vulnerable to an even greater cancer risk than had been previously thought.

One of the most common sexually transmitted diseases, HPV has been shown to cause genital warts among both sexes and has seen increasing attention in recent years because it can lead to cervical cancer in women.

The virus also has been linked to anal cancer in homosexual men.

Read more: http://www.azstarnet.com/sn/health/247265.php

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Uh oh - time to spend some money on this now that its not just minorities and women that are effected - unfortunately a sarcastic tag doesn't even begin to cover it...

Its always interesting to see what anti-gay/anti-women men will do with this information. How long did it take before AIDS was not a gay disease...

[Hydra]

1. That's always the way it is

I see things as diseases. Other people seem to see the same things as moral referendums from their "God" unless they can catch it.

I've told people over and over- if AIDS was an airborne virus, we would have had a cure in 2 years or less.

[FreeState]

2. Sad isn't it and unfortunately

we have a long way to go. People that are not bigoted that see disease as just disease are rare and even rarer is someone who cares about others as much as they do about themselves.

[Hydra]

3. I'm no saint

But I don't see the point of allowing diseases to run rampant to suit an agenda. Disease = not good for humans.

As Ripley said, "You know, Burke, I don't know which species is worse. You don't see them fucking each other over for a goddamn percentage."

[Indenturedebtor]

6. Probably but AIDS is a nasty nasty virus

There has been a massive effort for finding a cure but it's one of the most devious diseases in existence. Now if it only affected homosexuals no one would probably even be working on a cure ;(

[Hydra]

9. Don't be too sure of the hype

Our Gov't can spy on anyone on the planet, can create diseases that nobody can recover from, can fool the whole world into thinking we are some sort of gift from god, can survey stars halfway across the milky way...and they can't find a cure for AIDS???

Actually, this is the real proof- we know Congress can't keep their hands off of anything warm and breathing...when was the last time you saw a Congressman with AIDS?

[Indenturedebtor]

11. It's not just hype. The sort of conspiracy you describe would have to be so massive and widespread

It would be completely unmanageable. We can't cure Herpes either. Some viruses are just plain nasty.

There are scientists all over the world that have been working on a cure for HIV for decades, and who all generally agree that HIV is one of the nastiest organisms in existence. The only viruses that we're able to cure - we can use vaccines against. You can't do that with AIDS. They are working on entirely new ways to kill viruses.

[Hydra]

13. I know, I worked on some of them

I refer you to various writing in the vein of eugenics- if a cure was only available to a certain class of people and all R&D was being carefully watched, it wouldn't be hard at all to have such a superbug do it's dirty work.

I know you and I clash at times based on the available info vs. the backside stuff, but that's probably because I'm too much of a scientist. When you start seeing exceptions in a pattern, there's usually a good reason for those exceptions to be there...and recurring patterns doubly so.

For whatever reasons, our response to AIDS has been decidedly half-hearted to this day...at a cost I find to be too high, but others find acceptable.

"Destruction of the unworthy"

[ismnotwasm]

19. On the other hand

Isn't it true that the study of AIDS spurred incredible research in autoimmune disorders? Like Diabetes, Rheumatoid arthritis, Multiple Sclerosis, Lupus?

I know there are still atrocities in how we treat HIV, who gets treatment and how fast. One that immediately comes to mind is the lack of universal access to PEP.

[Hydra]

20. It's good that we are making SOME progress from this

But the original OP had gotten me thinking about a family early in the AIDS epidemic that were diagnosed incorrectly because at the time, it was believed to only be transmitted by homosexual contact(how that was supposed to work logically speaking I have no idea).

The entire family(Dad, mom and young child) died horribly because of "moral" inaction on the part of the medical community.

How many people have to die before this is seen as an unfeeling disease rather than the wrath of god?

[ismnotwasm]

22. I remember those early days

When I was a young girl, in the late seventies, I spend a lot of time around gay men and boys-- we were all street kids. Less than 10 years later, they were dying, and dying and dying. I remember the first time I say Kaposi's sarcoma. I thought my friend was doing crank (what we called meth in those days) and had "picked" all over his body.

That evil fucker Ronald Reagan, delaying any acknowledgment and funds for research until thousands upon thousands were dead. Making fucked up moral pronouncements. Doctors and nurses refusing to give care. Kids shunned from school. A horror movie style reality. I still hate that bastard.

I was under the impression that HIV research was making progress, but I honestly don't know. I'm a nurse and I work in transplant, I do dialysis, and we get treated HIV patients whose kidney's were destroyed, and have certain co-morbidities but are usually fairly stable. (Some good news, in San Fransisco at least, and HIV positive person can get a liver transplant)

I know the AIDS epidemic is still underrated as far as total detrimental impact to the world. I really believe that some people in America, specifically certain fundie mega-churches, (I look some of them up on line, and many of them have African ministries or sponsorships, and if you follow the money, it leads to the administration of the current evil fucker, bush) think that AIDS is epidemic only on the African continent or other third world countries and ignore what's in our own back yard

[Nihil]

32. Not necessarily

> Isn't it true that the study of AIDS spurred incredible research
> in autoimmune disorders? Like Diabetes, Rheumatoid arthritis,
> Multiple Sclerosis, Lupus?

I know that when it was first becoming a popular field for "research",
the AIDS gravy train directly and negatively impacted research into MS.
This is one of the items that sometimes makes me less than sympathetic
towards the (frequently innocent) victims of AIDS.

Hopefully, that situation has stabilised (though I wouldn't bet on it).

[NickB79]

34. "can create diseases that nobody can recover from"

What viruses are you referring to here?

[NickB79]

33. My old virology professor likened HIV mutation rates to "influenza on crack"

I don't know if he was just being dramatic, but he stated that the HIV virus mutated 1,000 times as fast as the influenza virus, and we all know how rapidly the flu bug can shift from year to year.

If what he told us was even remotely true, there would be no way to find a cure within 2 years even with massive funding for research.

[crikkett]

4. As usual, no mention of who funded study or developed vaccine

They are trying so damned hard to push that vaccine on us

[sybylla]

21. There is some mention, actually

It's a University of Arizona study funded by grants. Of course they don't mention the source of the grants, but generally if a study is funded by one source, even in a university setting, they generally give credit where credit is due as part of an academic honesty policy. It's the private studies that concern me far more.

OTOH, I know nothing about the University of Arizona, so you may cast all the aspersions you wish and I can't argue them.

[crikkett]

25. don't get me wrong - the aspersions I cast are against the reporter/editor, not the university

While I AM suspicious of the study, my complaint is about bad journalism.

[truthisfreedom]

5. Why don't they include any data for the number of men who get anal cancer?

They make all of these dire warnings, yet give us no data. Useless fear-mongering.

[high density]

7. Anal cancer?

That's a new one for my vocabulary.

[XemaSab]

8. I can use it in a sentence!

"Rush Limbaugh is an..."

[tblue37]

16. It's what Farrah Fawcett Major has, so it is not unheard of. n/t

[FreepFryer]

10. Yet more proof that heterosexuality is a sin against God and man. (n/t)

[Quantess]

12. Anyone remember when the Christian Fundies fought the HPV vaccine,

because it would encourage promiscuity among teenage girls? (Never mind that HPV causes cervical cancer) a vaccine would just encourage slutty behavior in unmarried young women.

What does the Christian Right say now?

[Lifetimedem]

14. That makes sense

It has long been known that a woman with multiple sex partners had a higher risk of cervical cancer, (greater possible exposure to that virus ), we know she can also pass it on to other men. So the fact that it might have a long term health sequela for the male too is not a huge surprise.

[Quantess]

15. What you say is true. Multiple partners increase the likelihood of spreading HPV

and that includes males giving it to females, and apparently we can now see that males spread it to other males.

But, it only takes one infected partner. You don't have to be promiscuous to get it. It's possible that a virgin bride/groom could get HPV from their near-virgin spouse. Most people have no idea they have HPV, because there are usually no symptoms.

[Lifetimedem]

17. true

Some sexual honesty can go a long way in a situation like that.

I once heard it said that when you have sex with someone you are having sex with every person they had sex with

[Quantess]

30. I suppose.

But, I didn't find out I had HPV until I had an abnormal pap at age 29 or 30. By then, I had already had a handful of decent boyfriends, and who can ever know what secrets your seemingly wonderful partner is carrying? And also, did I mention that HPV is extremely common? I'll have to look it up, but it's a sleeping-giant percentage of the population who already carry HPV.

I had pre-cancerous cells removed with cryosurgery a couple of years later. I still am not sure who gave HPV to me. Anyone who thinks I deserve cancer for having a few boyfriends, would be a horrible person that I would never wish to meet.

Anyway, welcome to DU! :hi:

[joeglow3]

37. Someone thinks you deserve cancer???

That is an evil person. However, this is the very reason I get so mad when I hear people say you don't need to share your past with a potential partner. I would never date a woman who would not tell me everything and held myself to the same requirement.

[Lifetimedem]

39. I agree

I do not think one needs to give dates and numbers... but they need to be honest about STD's or anything else that could affect YOU

[Lifetimedem]

38. Excuse my bluntness

It is only common because people have many "decent" sexual partners.

It is a sleeping giant that came in with the sexual revolution.

If we want to put a stop to this potentially dangerous disease we need to reinforce the fact that when we sleep with anyone we are also sleeping with everyone that they have slept with.

Common sense says to protect yourself.. even "decent" guys have secrets.....yea they ended up not so decent to put you through that.

Hope you are well now!

[Quantess]

40. Thanks. I am.

:)
My irritation and anger is directed toward the religious fundies who see cancer as the deserved punishment.

[crikkett]

26. "and apparently we can now see that males spread it to other males"

did you read the article right? the study was on straight men.

[Quantess]

29. I think it was this clip that made me think of homosexual sex:

Of the 222 men in the survey who said they'd had sex only with women in their lives, roughly 25 percent had an anal HPV infection, according to the research. Other DUers had made comments about homosexual male-to-male transmission. But that's not my beef (bad pun not intended).

Mostly, I'm irritated at the hypocrisy and sexist double standard of Christian Right Fundies. Their unspoken, crystal-clear message is:
Girls can't have the vaccine because that would give them the green light to be sluts. If they get cancer later in life, then they deserve their cancer. Slutty girls spread HPV to boys. Who cares if slutty boys spread the disease to girls, because only girls should be held accountable.


Well, their "God's plan" to punish only the promiscuous females appeared to hold true for the past few years. But now, a wrench has been thrown into their wheel. Males get cancer from HPV, too. This is where the Conservative Christian Right softens, and says, in all its duplicity, that the HPV vaccine is right by (their) God. Heterosexual men will be "forgiven" for their promiscuity.

[RayOfHope]

18. Okay wait, I thought the strain that causes genital warts wasn't responsible for cancer?

Can anyone clarify this?

[hedgehog]

23. Another reason both men and women wshould get the HPV vaccine:

Researchers blame HPV for rise in throat cancer

With 6,000 cases per year and an annual increase of up to 10 percent in men younger than 60, some researchers say the HPV-linked throat cancers could overtake cervical cancer in the next decade.


http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-hpv-cancer_bd08jun08,0,4643077.story



My 82 year old mother asked me if I had had my sons vaccinated.

[marshall]

24. Being sexually active in any way makes one more vulnerable to disease

That's just the way it is. It shouldn't take a study to tell us that, anymore than we need a study to tell us that jogging makes one more vulnerable to shin splints.

[FarCenter]

28. You should never get closer to anyone than a flea can jump

At least 3 feet.

[Doctor_J]

27. Well, as Rusty and O'Really will tell you, we male breeders

(especially white ones) are an oppressed minority. This is just one more strike against us.

[Quantess]

31. I suppose it's funny, if you can't do better than Glenn Beck.

Pretty sad.

[sudopod]

35. Le Sigh

The US government isn't in charge of every virologist on planet Earth.

[conflictgirl]

36. And let me guess...the "cure" will be mandatory Gardasil for male children now

Since the media was reporting a few months ago that boys should get Gardasil too because they could get HPV from oral sex with women, this doesn't surprise me at all. It's not good enough just to produce a vaccine for those who want it or at particularly high risk - no, the vaccine manufacturers will do anything to try to make their vaccines mandatory for everyone.