Virus spread through oral sex linked to soaring skin cancer rates for first time in major study
Human papillomavirus (HPV) is the second most common STI in the UK, after chlamydia, with around four in five people estimated to have HPV at some point in their lives.
The virus is already known to raise the risk of six types of cancer, including anal, head and neck, throat and a number of gynaecological cancers such as cervical.
But now, US researchers at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) say the virus could also cause a deadly form of skin cancer, known as squamous cell carcinoma.
More than 25,000 people in the UK are diagnosed with the disease every year, making it the second most common form of skin cancer.
While it is highly survivable in the early stages, when caught late it can spread to other areas of the body where it becomes far more difficult to treat.
The scientists discovered the link after a 34-year-old woman was referred to the clinic, presenting with recurrent skin cancer despite multiple surgeries and a round of immunotherapy.
Her local GP initially dismissed her symptoms as an inherited condition, believing she was more sensitive to radiation and struggled to repair cells damaged by UV radiation.
But analysis at the NIH revealed HPV had incorporated itself into the genes of her cancer cells, which researchers suspected had led them to become more aggressive.
Further tests showed that her skin cells could still repair sun damage, suggesting ultraviolet (UV) exposure was not the main driver of her skin cancer.
Dr Andrea Lisco, a virologist who led the study, said: 'This discovery could completely change how we think about the development, and consequently the treatment, of [skin cancer] in people who have a health condition that compromises immune function.
'It suggests that there may be more people out there with aggressive forms of [skin cancer] who have underlying immune defect and could benefit from treatments targeting the immune system.'
The findings, published in the New England Journal of Medicine last week, are still preliminary and only suggest a potential link between HPV and skin cancer.
More research is needed to confirm the findings, and it is not clear at this time what proportion of skin cancer cases may be caused by the virus.
The patient was immunocompromised and unable to produce enough healthy T cells, a key part of the immune system, to fight off the virus.
Doctors treated her with a stem cell transplant to restore her immune system.
Three years later, her skin cancer has not returned, and other HPV-related complications, such as growths on her tongue and skin, have also disappeared.
Researchers said she was infected with beta-HPV, a type of HPV that is present on the skin and can be spread through sexual contact.
The variant differs from alpha-HPV, which is linked to cancer in the throat, anus and cervix.
Researchers found that the virus had embedded itself in the cancer cells' DNA and was driving them to produce viral proteins, triggering mutations that likely fueled the tumors growth.
In persistent HPV infections, studies suggest that mutations occur in cells that lead to the development of cancer.
The immune system normally clears the infection by itself, with many patients unaware they ever had HPV.
But in some cases the infection can cause symptoms, like warts, with doctors treating these using surgery or prescription creams to destroy the growths.
Experts have repeatedly urged people to get the HPV vaccine to reduce their risk of HPV cancers.
Yet, according to the World Health Organisation (WHO), the UK's HPV vaccine uptake lags shockingly behind other countries — just 56 per cent among girls and 50 per cent for boys.
Denmark, by comparison, records a rate of around 80 per cent.
Cases of squamous cell carcinoma, however, have spiked in recent years and risen by 200 percent in the last three decades, estimates suggest.
This has primarily been linked to more exposure to UV rays from the sun and tanning beds.
Warning signs of the cancer include a firm, raised bump or nodule on the skin, or a scaly, red or pink patch or sore that does not heal.
Those with long-term sun exposure, fair skin, or who are over 65 years old are most likely to be diagnosed with the disease. Men are also twice as likely to be diagnosed as women.
Doctors normally treat the cancer using surgery or chemotherapy, and it has a good survival rate.
More than four in five cases are caught in the early stages, where patients have a five-year survival rate of 99 percent. But if the cancer spreads in the body, this drops to 20 percent.
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