Alcohol consumption and tonsil cancer?

Skiffin16 said:

HPV
I'm by no means an expert nor medical professional. I have read a lot of theories on contraction of HPV. Some do feel that it's sexually related, others don't. Some feel that everyone has HPV cells and cancer cells in your body. It's just luck of the draw, stress, weight, who knows exactly what triggers them to become active.

I asked some of your questions to my Chemo Doctor. My wife asked them of her Gynecologist, my son asked his General Physician.

All that I can really derive is that basically anyone that has had sex has had the potential to have been infected with HPV. Most that have been exposed can become infected and it go away never progressing to cancer, sometime it does.

Also, you might carry it for several years and it never show up.

In my case I know that neither myself or my wife have been with anyone else for over 20 years and I was diagnosed with HPV derived throat cancer.

Here is a pretty good site with a lot of interesting reading. Does it really tell me anything for sure on how I got HPV derived throat cancer, I don't really think so;

http://www.cancer.gov/cancertopics/factsheet/Risk/HPV

Here's another, especially read the last paragraph;

"The important concept with HPV is not to become overly concerned about having manifestations of the virus. There is no way that a reasonable person in this day and age should have a cervical cancer develop. they just need to have periodic Pap smears and pelvic exams. Because you have just found out you have HPV cervical changes does not mean your partner has been unfaithful. You could have contracted the virus at any time you ever had sexual relations or so could your partner before meeting you. You or your partner may even have been part of the 3% of people who were positive for HPV from childhood. Try not to despair and panic about this. There are hundreds, if not more, of "incurable" viruses you have been exposed to during your life up to this point and more yet to come. So just be careful and vigilant."

http://www.wdxcyber.com/nvulva04.htm

John

Scambuster said:

Blaming HPV ??
I think blaming HPV for your getting cancer is an error.

I believe it may be a 'contributing factor', as is smoking, alcohol, poor lifestyle and poor diet as well a genetic predisposition.

If your body is working perfectly, you don't get cancer. As we all inherit genes and hence certain physical (and medical) attributes and weaknesses, we may be more susceptible to certain illnesses and conditions (predisposition).

As for how we treat our bodies, for each bad thing you do to your body, you compromise your health and well-being. If you are serious about being well, then you should avoid all bad things. Right ??

As we 'are' human, we take risks as our incentive for short term enjoyment often overrides our any incentive to avoid future illness (Smoking is the classic example). You are gambling every time you do something bad to your body, that your body will overcome the negative input whether it be bad food, smoking, booze, lack of exercise, stress, medication etc.

Think of your body management (which is really your health) as two (2) columns, a bit like a 'Profit and Loss sheet' or 'T' Chart.
In one column you have positive things, the other - bad things. For each input (good or bad) you put a tick - or maybe several ticks, for every input in either column. We must note that while many good inputs are in fact 'good', they don't necessarily cancel out the 'bad' things you might do.

By doing this you may get a better idea of how well you are doing at looking after yourself, and hopefully recognize the amount of bad things you may be doing, which of course, are not helping to: 1. Recover from this horrid disease, and 2. Stay Cancer free.

I think we all agree that option 2. is our desire, to stay FREE of cancer, right ?? RIGHT ! The rest is up to all of us, not our Doctors, not our HPV, not our chefs, spouses or scientists - just us.

Regds to all,
Scambuster.

needhope1 said:

To Kimba & Staceya
Hi,

First of all, I don't recall my husband's oncologist warning me of contracting HPV from him...but I just had my annual gyne appointment and asked her opinion on HPV. When I told her of my husband's cancer and him being HPV+, she was shocked as this was the 4th male she had heard of in contracting throat cancer and HPV+ so she agreed this connection is on the rise.

Because of my husband being HPV+ she tested me for HPV (something they don't test on normal pap exams which shocked me) She said if I test positive either my husband gave it to me or if I am positive I gave it to him...and in my mind I thought possibly caused his cancer?!

My test results came back negative for HPV---which kinda perplexed me---my husband and I have been together for 12 years...so I guess I cannot or at least at this point have not contracted this virus from my husband? I havent had a chance to talk further to my gyne about this confusing results..but hope to soon and will let you know what she says.

My gyne said my daughter does not have a higher risk of getting HPV, but she said she is getting her 2 girls vaccinated with Gardasil as well as her son (as this has recently been approved for boys) because of this recent surge of throat cancers linked to HPV in men.

I shudder to think that if my dh had had the Gardasil vaccine in his day, would this have stopped his cancer from appearing?

So, this is what I have been told...seems like all of this is so new there isnt too much concrete evidence on it?

Skiffin16 said:

HPV Transference
As a side not since you mentioned it.

My wife and I have been together 20+ years and both faithful. I contracted throat cancer HPV+, she was tested as a precaution after finding out that I had been exposed. She doesn't have it either. So if I did catch it through sexual transference, it had to be more than 20+ years ago, and just now became active....

If you read the articles, it leaves a lot of speculation on transference of the many, many HPV types..and mere skin to skin contact is referenced as a possibility as well....how do you protect yourself from that, stay in a bubble?

John

Skiffin16 said:

Stacey
My son who is 30 asked his doctor if there was any testing that he should have and was told basically that there really isn't any indicators in males to test for (unless your having symptoms). So other than younger girls being offered Guardasil and I'm not even sure if that's available for boys (from what I read it's not), but that could be old information. I thought that it was part of the annual female exams, but guess it's not tested for until you are past the age of 35 from what my wifes doctor told her.

Skiffin16 said:

HPV Genital Warts
Also, from what I have read, the type of HPV for genital warts is not HPV 16 (cervical and throat), genital warts are of a different strain primarily HPV 6 & 11, which I believe rarely leads to cancer.

Scambuster said:

Diet
Charles,

Another avenue to look at is Diet. Man studies have shown that to be a primary cause to many of our health problems in this 21st Century. If you don;t get the right nutrition, your body doesn't work properly, your immune system get compromised and all these normally benign things then get the upper hand (HPV,EBV, HIV etc).

We all have cancer cells in our bodies all the time. Why do some of us get it manifesting as a major threat ?? My view now is nutrition, diet and lifestyle (including stress factors). If all these things are fixed up properly, we should be in better shape to ward off the attack from Cancer. Some of are maybe more prone or sensitive, but we still have to be compromised in some way for this to have happened.

From the nutrition side, the blame seems to go heavily onto consuming Animal proteins, processed foods and too much processed sugar. In it's place we should be doing high volumes of raw foods - Veges, fruits and nuts. There is a lot of information out about this so it may be worth your while to investigate further and incorporate diet into your recovery plan.

Scam

Kimba1505 said:

HPV...more stuff
Yesterday we met with the radiologist onocologist. And while I asked about HPV and got some information, he suggested I go to oncolink and Univ. at Penn. (google it). One question I asked and was answered was, if you get HPV16 oral cancer and have it treated, and the virus stays in your body, what is the liklihood you can get it again. He said "small" if even possilbe. This may have something to do with the anti-bodies Scam was talking about...but I could not get into a deeper discussion because really we were there to talk about my partner's treatment plan, not my pursuit of the HPV16 mystery.

I went to onco link, where you can ask questions. Below is a question and answer copied from that site. The doctor responding to the question, is the doctor we met with yesterday.

Does the same HPV cause oral & cervical cancer and does the vaccine protect you against oral HPV?



Harry Quon, MD, MS (CRM), Assistant Professor of Radiation Oncology at the Abramson Cancer Center of the University of Pennsylvania, responds:

There are many subtypes of HPV viruses much like the flu virus. The answer is that the subtypes that cause cervical cancer has also been the same ones that are strongly associated with oropharynx cancer. We don't know how effective the vaccines that have been used for cervix cancer are against oropharyngeal cancers right now.

(Mark has his robotic surgery tomorrow...here we go!)