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Single male smokers are at a greater risk of developing oral cancer than any other group.
This new study discovered that single men who live alone smoke are atop the list of people at risk for developing oral cancer. They also have the highest risk of developing the human papilloma virus. HPV is generally spread by sexual contact.
The information recently appeared in the The Lancet.
For healthy men, the virus is uncommon and doesn’t stick around in the body for more 12 months at the most.
Despite all of the programs to combat smoking and the fact that HPV has been pinpointed as a major risk factor for oral cancer, smoking is still the main risk factor for oral cancer. About half of smokers eventually die from an illness related to smoking, particularly mouth cancer.
It’s essential in the future to increase the awareness about the risk factors involved with oral cancer. There is twice the amount of cases as there were just 10 years ago. The survival rates for people with other forms of cancer have increased but the same can’t be said for oral cancer because people simply don’t know enough about it. Therefore, many cases aren’t diagnosed until they reach an advanced stage when survival becomes more of a challenge.
