Men who smoke and have multiple oral sex partners face higher cancer risk
Men who smoke cigarettes and have more than five oral sex partners are more likely to get head and neck cancer.
A study published by Annals of Oncology found that oral and throat cancers are linked with these behaviors caused by the Human Papillomavirus, or HPV.
Newsweek reports that researchers examined data by the National Nutrition Examination Survey. Out of 13,089 people ages 20 to 69, researchers counted how many people contracted oral HPV infections.
The study determined that men who smoked and had a range of two to four oral sex partners had a 7 percent chance of an oral HPV infection. Men who smoked but had more than 5 oral sex partners had a 15 percent chance.
For women with two or more oral sex partners, the chances were much lower at about 1.5 percent, regardless of smoking history.
Chances were best for women who had no history of smoking and no oral sex partners.
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