Sexually transmitted disease spread by kissing and oral sex linked to skin cancer

A sexually transmitted disease spread by kissing and oral sex has been linked to skin cancer for the first time.

Human papillomavirus (HPV) is the most common sexually transmitted disease in the US, infecting around 42million Americans at any time and it is already known to cause cancers of the throat, anus, and cervix.

Now, researchers at the National Institutes of Health say the virus could also cause squamous cell carcinoma, the second most common skin cancer in the US, with 1.8million cases diagnosed every year.

The team made the link after studying a 34-year-old woman who developed skin cancer on her forehead that kept returning despite surgery and immunotherapy.

Doctors initially suspected the recurrent cancer was due to a rare condition she had called RIDDLE syndrome, which weakens the immune system and makes the body more sensitive to radiation.

But analysis at the NIH revealed HPV had incorporated itself into the genes of her cancer cells, which scientists said 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.

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