Smoking and having oral sex with multiple partners may put men at increased risk of developing a type of head and neck cancer that is triggered by exposure to the human papilloma virus, known as HPV-related oropharyngeal cancer, warns a new study. The risk was much lower among women, anyone who did not smoke, and people who had less than five oral sex partners in their lifetimes, found the study published in the journal Annals of Oncology. "Most people perform oral sex in their lives, and we found that oral infection with cancer-causing HPV was rare among women regardless of how many oral sex partners they had," said one of the study authors Amber D'Souza, associate professor at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in the US. "Among men who did not smoke, cancer-causing oral HPV was rare among everyone who had less than five oral sex partners, although the chances of having oral HPV infection did increase with number of oral sexual partners, and with smoking," D'Souza added.

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