Once considered a minor STD, HPV infection has emerged as a frightening cancer threat to both women and men.
Transmission of the human papillomavirus is most common through vaginal or anal intercourse, although it can also be transmitted by oral sex.
For women, the primary concern is cervical cancer.
According to the federal Centers for Disease Control, about 12,000 women get cervical cancer in the United States each year — and doctors say the main cause is HPV.
But the virus also affects men, causing penile, anal and mouth- and neck-related cancers.
According to a study in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, the rate of HPV-associated head, neck and throat cancer skyrocketed by 225 percent between 1988 and 2004.
And the figures are only growing. Now about 63 percent of the roughly 11,000 cases of oropharyngeal cancers diagnosed nationally each year are linked to prior HPV infection, the CDC reports.
“The American public’s knowledge about this is very low,” said Bob Hill of the Oral Cancer Foundation. “Even five years ago, professionals really didn’t know about the links between HPV and cancer.”
There are more than 100 different types of HPV, with most of them inducing mild symptoms or no symptoms.
Experts estimate nearly every sexually active American will be exposed to at least one type of the virus in his or her lifetime.
HPV infection can be difficult to detect. While genital warts are considered a telltale symptom, the disease can lie dormant for many years and there is no definitive test for men.
Many doctors recommend a preventative vaccine for 11- or 12-year-old boys and girls.
But once you get the virus, “There are [typically] no basic symptoms, nothing overt,’’ Hill said. There are no red flags where you know you have it.”
It is unclear why HPV triggers cancer in some people and not in others.