Oral sex linked to throat cancer

What's more likely to give you throat cancer: smoking, alcohol use, or oral sex?

As it turns out, the risk of throat cancer isn't just higher, it's nine times higher for people who have had oral sex with more than six partners.

But, shocking as it sounds, it probably shouldn't be all that surprising. We already know that HPV is behind most cases of cervical cancer, and that 80% of sexually active women will get an HPV infection at some point in their lives. So, it only follows that we'd see similar numbers when it comes to oral sex.

Before you swear off oral sex forever, you know should that most HPV infections are relatively innocuous -- clearing with little or no symptoms. In fact, researchers stress that "oropharyngeal cancer is relatively uncommon and the overwhelming majority of people with an oral HPV infection probably will not get throat cancer."

However, a small percentage of people will contract a high-risk strain, and in those cases, they are more prone to developing the disease.