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Maura Gillison, MD, a researcher and professor at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, was among the first to study the link between the growth of head and neck cancers among younger nonsmokers and certain types of the sexually transmitted human papillomavirus (HPV). It's the same virus that causes the majority of cervical cancers and warts. The risks are scary because the virus is really common, even in teenagers. Twenty million people in the United States have some form of HPV, and over six million more get it every year. It can be transmitted through oral sex, and both men and women can be infected. Of the more than 35,000 people who will be diagnosed with oral cancer this year, 25 percent of us will connect our diagnosis to HPV infection. As my treatment continues, I'm struck by how nobody seems to know about any of this.
There's more to the tongue than most people realize. It extends far below the part that we see, and it assists in speaking and swallowing and affects breathing. You need a tongue to whistle. Babies need to master their tongues before they can talk. It's been called one of the strongest muscles we have. It has tens of thousands of receptors in tiny openings that allow into our system the characteristics of whatever our mouth touches: a perfectly seared steak, a velvety red wine, milk gone bad, a bitter medicine, a baby's kiss, a lover's body. These conduits carry data to our brains, information that conveys "taste" in all its meanings. It's who we are, what we like, what we are like -- that experience a little too sweet, that one not savory enough, that one just right.
So what is the virus that causes cervical cancer doing in my throat, creating a tumor on my tongue, leaching into my lymph nodes, threatening my larynx and my life? According to Dr. Gillison and others, the answer goes back to the late 1970s, when the medical community began to notice the spread of HPV. "It is linked to a change in sexual habits," she says simply.
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