Men Increasingly Feel HPV's Sting

Incidences of head and neck cancer associated with human papillomavirus are on the rise, and men are increasingly falling ill, says The Wall Street Journal Health Blog's Laura Landro. These tumors found in the tonsils and the area behind the tongue have been linked to changes in sexual behavior, particularly the increase in the practice of oral sex in young adults, Landro says. New efforts are underway to treat the disease, with some people calling for the vaccination of boys as well as girls against HPV to prevent oral infections and cancers. Mount Sinai Medical Center's Eric Genden tells Landro that patients with HPV-positive head and neck cancers have an 85 percent to 90 percent disease-free survival rate over five years, when treated properly, compared to patients with HPV-negative head and neck cancers, whose five-year survival rate is 25 percent to 40 percent. The US Center for Disease Control and Prevention plans to review data on the costs and benefits of routine HPV vaccination for boys, Landro adds.