Men are twice as likely as women to get cancer of the mouth and throat linked to the human papillomavirus, or HPV, one of the most common sexually transmitted infections, researchers say.

For men, the risk of HPV-driven cancers of the head and neck rise along with the number of oral sex partners, researchers said Friday at the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) annual meeting in the US capital.

Nearly two out of three of these oral cancers in the United States and most western nations are caused by infection with the HPV 16 strain of the virus, and incidence of cancer is on the rise in recent years.

Oral sex may raise the risk of head and neck cancer by 22 percent, according to a study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA).

This type of cancer has risen 225 percent in the last two decades.

Middle aged white men are at particularly high risk compared to other races.

But with women, the number of sexual partners does not appear to raise the risk.


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