Two-thirds of Americans aged 15 to 24 have engaged in oral sex, according to a survey of young people's sexual habits. The data, published in the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's National Health Statistics Reports, also reveals that about one-quarter of young people try oral sex before they engage in intercourse. Now, researchers at Oxford University compared blood samples from 938 patients with head and neck, oesophageal (gullet) and oropharyngeal cancers with 1599 people without the disease. They found that more than a third of those who had oropharyngeal cancers - those at the back of the throat - also carried antibodies to one of HPV’s key cancer-causing proteins – a protein from the HPV16 virus called E6. HPV is already known to increase the risk of developing cervical, vulval, anal, and penile cancers. People who have had a number of oral sex partners have a higher risk of being infected by the virus.
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