hpv symptoms
hpv symptoms |
- The epidemic of throat cancer sweeping the industrialized world - The Mercury News
- 5 Things Every Woman (and Man) Should Know About HPV and Cancer - Parade
- The HPV vaccine prevents cancer. Here's what you need to know. - NorthJersey.com
| The epidemic of throat cancer sweeping the industrialized world - The Mercury News Posted: 15 Feb 2019 12:00 AM PST Over the past three decades, a dramatic increase in a new form of throat cancer has been observed throughout the industrialized world. The good news is that it's potentially preventable — if parents get their children vaccinated. The disease shows up primarily in men, typically between the ages of 45 and 70. Those who are affected often lead healthy lifestyles. They do not have extensive histories of smoking tobacco or consuming alcohol, which are risk factors for traditional throat cancers.  The rate of this new cancer has been increasing 5 percent per year and today, it is more than three times as common as in the mid-1980s. If you think this scenario sounds like a slow-moving infectious medical drama (think Contagion or World War Z), you would be right. The source of this cancer is a virus, the human papillomavirus (HPV) — the same virus that causes most cervical cancer in women. It's widely known that parents should get their girls vaccinated. Now, with the surge in oral HPV cancers, especially in men, parents should get their boys vaccinated too. Currently, vaccination against HPV is recommended by the Centers for Disease Control for children and young adults ages 9-26. The vaccination includes a series of two or three injections; the side effects are mild.Ideally, the vaccinations should be administered before someone becomes sexually active. That's because HPV is spread via sexual activity. Risk of HPV infection and throat cancer increases with the number of lifetime partners. Men have a lower immune response to the virus than women, which explains the predilection of this disease for men. It's difficult to know if someone has an active oral HPV infection because there are no symptoms. Currently, there is no widely accepted test for HPV in men. Chronic infection leads to cellular changes within the lymphatic tissues in the throat, specifically the tonsils and base of tongue. Over the course of 20-30 years, these changes can result in the formation of cancer. Throat cancer caused by HPV is insidious. The primary tumor in the tonsil or base of tongue often causes little to no symptoms. Early signs of this cancer may be a mild sore throat, occasional blood-tinged oral saliva, or increased or new snoring. Often, the first sign of the cancer is a lump in the neck after the cancer has spread into the lymphatic system. The lump may arise quickly and then shrink to varying degrees, lulling one into complacency. Early stage cancer can be treated with surgery or radiation. More advanced cancers are treated with combined therapy such as surgery followed by radiation therapy, or chemotherapy in conjunction with radiation therapy. Finally, some good news. Treatment for HPV-related throat cancer is successful in about 90 percent of cases and is significantly more successful than treatment of non-HPV related throat cancer. But, as successful as medicine has been in treating this cancer, an even better alternative is prevention via vaccination. Initial studies have shown that vaccination produces an immune response to HPV and reduces the rate of HPV infection. Given time and good vaccination coverage, a decline in throat cancer is expected. In summary, here are a few simple take-home messages: If you have a lump in the neck or a chronic sore throat, don't procrastinate. Have your doctor check it out. If you are a partner of someone with these symptoms, strongly encourage your partner to see his or her doctor. If you have children ages 9-17, talk to your pediatrician about HPV vaccination. If you are 18-26 years old, talk to your primary care doctor about vaccination. These simple steps may save your life or the life of your loved one. Dr. Bryan Fong is the senior practicing head and neck surgical oncologist for Northern California Kaiser Permanente. He practices in Walnut Creek and Oakland.  |
| 5 Things Every Woman (and Man) Should Know About HPV and Cancer - Parade Posted: 07 Mar 2019 07:42 PM PST  No, this isn't a fun or frothy post, but you should probably read it since according to the CDC website "HPV infections are so common that nearly all men and women will get at least one type of HPV at some point in their lives." Nearly 80 million Americans are currently infected with some type of HPV so chances are good that you, or someone you love or hang out with has heard they have some form of Human Papillomavirus, better known as HPV. According to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, there are over 150 related viruses with varying symptoms and some with none at all. The virus is so prevalent that an International HPV Awareness Day has been established annually on March 4. And do not feel ashamed if you or your partner do in fact have some form of HPV. "Most people never know that they have been infected and may give HPV to a sex partner without knowing it," according to the CDC. About 14 million people in the United States become newly infected each year. The only shame is if you do not educate your children or partners or get tested, since in some cases HPV can lead to various cancers. While there is no universal treatment for HPV, there is a vaccination. Sadly though, vaccine hesitancy landed on the World Health Organization's (WHO) top 10 global threats this year. This is relevant since they're also ramping up efforts this year to eliminate cervical cancer worldwide by increasing coverage of the HPV vaccine. There are new vaccine guidelines that expand the recommendations from the previous adolescent age group. The experts at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center provided the following 5 things to know about HPV and cancer.
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| The HPV vaccine prevents cancer. Here's what you need to know. - NorthJersey.com Posted: 11 Mar 2019 04:44 AM PDT CLOSE  Here are some answers to the most commonly asked questions about meningitis. North Jersey Record If you knew about a vaccine that was more than 90 percent effective in preventing cancers caused by a particular type of virus, would you want your child to be immunized ? If you're 45 or under, would you want it for yourself? Last fall, the Food and Drug Administration approved the Gardasil-9 vaccine for use in people 9 to 45 years old to protect them against the human papillomavirus (HPV), a group of related viruses named for the warts caused by some of the HPV strains. Since 2006, when a version of the vaccine was approved to treat girls 9 to 26, studies showing its effectiveness have led the FDA to extend its recommendations to cover a larger population. And yet, while the vast majority of parents make sure their children get inoculated against polio, measles, mumps, rubella, chicken pox, tetanus and other illnesses, less than 60 percent of New Jersey teens are up to date on their HPV vaccines. And that's better than the nation as a whole; according to the Centers for Disease Control, only 49 percent of American adolescents are currently up to date. Because HPV is transmitted through sexual contact, "Some parents think that it's not necessary because their kids aren't sexually active," said Dr. Jennifer Northridge, section chief of adolescent medicine at the Joseph M. Sanzari Children's Hospital in Hackensack. "Or they worry that it will somehow give permission to kids to be sexually active. But really, we're giving it because we want to help protect kids from cancer in the future." Young children have immune systems that are more robust, she said. For this reason, kids as young as 9 may be immunized; the CDC recommends that children ages 11 and 12 get two HPV vaccine shots 6 to 12 months apart. Once kids turn 15, it's advised that they get three injections over a 6-month period. Adults ages 27 to 45 are encouraged to get vaccinated because even if they've been exposed to a strain of HPV or they've already had genital warts, the vaccine can protect them from other strains, including ones that cause cancer. The most common side effects of the vaccine include soreness at the injection site, redness and swelling. More: This is why children are dying from the flu in New Jersey More: Can I get the flu by getting the vaccine? No, say doctors More: Winter tips from the American Academy of Pediatrics Most of us will be exposed to HPV at some pointHPV is the most common sexually transmitted infection; roughly 80 million Americans are infected with it today, though most are unaware of it. Thank you! You're almost signed up for Keep an eye out for an email to confirm your newsletter registration. "Most of the time, those HPV infections don't cause any symptoms, and resolve themselves," said Dr. Northridge. "But sometimes they can persist." If the immune system doesn't clear out the virus, it can stay inside cells for years, possibly leading to warts, benign tumors and in some cases, cancer. Though there are as many as 100 strains of HPV, the vaccine immunizes users from the two that cause the vast majority of cancer cases, and almost all incidence of genital warts. More than 32,000 Americans annually are diagnosed with cancers of the cervix, vulva, anus, penis and back of the throat caused by HPV. According to the National Cancer Institute, noncervical cancers caused by HPV are now as common as cervical cancers. In fact, "The incidence of oropharyngeal cancers (around the tonsils and back side of the tongue) associated with HPV is overtaking that of cervical cancer," said Dr. Tom Thomas, a head and neck surgeon at Morristown Medical Center, and a leader at the new Atlantic HPV Center. Getting the word outThe Atlantic HPV Center opened last spring to provide a single location where patients could get screened and treated by a radiologist, surgeon and oncologist, and to educate the public about HPV. "It was a taboo subject, but it's good to see that in the last 10 years, people are talking about it," Thomas said. Because HVP vaccinations are introduced years after many of the other childhood inoculations, they can be overlooked or forgotten. "Parents remember their well care visits, and they bring their kids to the doctor when they're sick, but it's those in-between visits that aren't on their radar screens," said Therese Floyd, an advanced practice nurse with the Pediatric Primary Care Clinic at the DePaul Center, part of St. Joseph's Children's Hospital in Paterson. Every year, the CDC honors a health provider in each state with its HPV Vaccine is Cancer Prevention Award, and The Pediatric Primary Care Clinic was designated the 2018 winner in New Jersey. "We explain to parents when their kids are young that the vaccine is really a cancer prevention measure," said Floyd. "We found that rates of kids getting the first dose of the vaccine were favorable, but when you looked at the second and third, they were lower. So we set up a system where, after a patient came in for the first vaccine, an alert would be set up to call at the right time to get the second. We also created nursing visits for the second and third shots." Any contact with a teen patient, she said, was an opportunity to ask, "Are you due for a vaccine?" Eventually, the clinic's rates started to increase. "At the time we were nominated, 81 percent of our patients (who were eligible) had completed the series," she said. "The refusal rate was less than 5 percent." Floyd noted that many schools are addressing the topic in their health classes, as well. "One child told me, 'I heard in school that if I get it before I'm 15, I only need two shots.' " These and similar measures are increasing awareness and participation, so that the number of teens who are up to date on their HPV vaccinations increased, on average, 5 percentage points each year between 2013 and 2017. A study highlighted by the American Academy of Pediatrics last year shows that between 2011 and 2014, cervical cancer cases in women ages 15 to 24 fell nearly a third compared to the four years before the vaccination was introduced. Nearing your monthly article limit? 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