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【科普】烟、酒、性：头颈肿瘤的罪魁祸首
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - There are two distinct culprits behind head and neck cancer -- the long-recognized heavy tobacco and alcohol use as well as a common sexually transmitted virus, researchers said on Tuesday.
The risk factors are so dramatically different in head and neck cancer in people infected with the human papillomavirus, or HPV, that it should be considered a separate disease from cases in which patients are not infected, researchers at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore said.
Head and neck cancer includes tumors in the mouth, tongue, nose, sinuses, throat and lymph nodes in the neck.
"These are completely different cancers and we need to view them as such. They just happen to occur in the same place. The risk factors didn't appear to overlap at all, and there didn't appear to be any interaction between them," Dr. Maura Gillison, a professor of oncology and epidemiology, said in a telephone interview.
More than 35,000 people are diagnosed with head and neck cancer annually in the United States alone. If found early, such cancer may respond well to treatment with surgery, radiation therapy and chemotherapy.
Not only are the patient populations different in HPV-positive and HPV-negative head and neck cancer, but the tumors look different under a microscope, Gillison said. People with the viral-linked cancer also tend to respond better to treatment than those not HPV-infected, she added.
HPV is a common sexually transmitted virus. It is well known for causing cervical cancer and genital warts.
Since 2000, researchers have also known that HPV infection was linked to some cases of head and neck cancer, particularly in the upper throat and back of the tongue.
The new study, published in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute, focused on 240 people diagnosed with head and neck cancer between 2000 and 2006.
Nearly 40 percent of them had an HPV infection. Those patients did not have the well-known risk factors for head and neck cancer -- tobacco smoking, alcohol use and poor oral hygiene, the researchers found.
The people with viral-linked cancer cases had a completely different set of risk factors, including certain sexual behaviors and marijuana use, the researchers found.
Sexual behaviors linked to these patients included increasing numbers of lifetime sex partners including oral sex, and the presence of a sexually transmitted disease, they said.
Gillison said it is possible other behaviors linked with marijuana use could be responsible, but said chemicals in marijuana called cannabinoids could affect the immune system's ability to clear a viral infection.
因百无聊赖而放浪形骸的林赛·罗韩成了好莱坞最年轻的坏榜样，变为新一代堕落芭比的代名词。
http://www.reuters.com/article/healthNews/idUSN1161848520080311 烟、酒、性：头颈肿瘤的罪魁祸首
华盛顿(路透通讯社)- 研究员周二说，头颈肿瘤存在两个不同的罪魁祸首--长期公认的大量烟草和乙醇利用，与常见的性传播病毒一样。
Baltimore市Johns Hopkins大学的研究员说，感染人乳头瘤病毒或HPV人群头颈肿瘤的危险因子如此显著不同，以致可以认为其与未受感染头颈肿瘤病人是单独疾病。
头颈肿瘤包括口、舌、鼻、窦、咽喉和颈部淋巴结的肿瘤。
“这是完全不同的肿瘤，它们仅是发生的部位相同，但我们需要共同看待他们。危险因子完全未显出重叠，且这里并未显示出其间的任何相互作用，”肿瘤学和流行病学教授Maura Gillison博士在电话采访中说。
仅在美国，每年诊断出超过35000名头颈肿瘤病人。如果发现及时，这类肿瘤进行手术、放疗和化疗的效果良好。
“HPV阳性和HPV-阴性头颈肿瘤，不仅病人群体不同，而且肿瘤在显微镜下看上去不同，”Gillison说，“病毒-相关肿瘤病人较那些未受HPV-感染病人也对治疗有更好的反应性。”
HPV是一个常见的性传染病毒。已知能引起子宫颈癌和生殖器疣。
2000年以来，研究者已知，HPV感染与一些头颈肿瘤病例相联系，尤其是咽喉上部和舌背。
发表在国立癌症研究所杂志的新研究集中于2000-2006年间诊断为头颈肿瘤的240人。
其中近40%感染HPV。研究者发现，那些病人并不具备已知的头颈肿瘤危险因子—抽烟、饮酒和口腔卫生不良。
研究者发现，病毒-相关癌病人具有完全不同的危险因子，包括性行为和利用大麻。
他们说，结合这些病人的性行为，包括增多的终生性伴侣数目，包括口交和性传播疾病的存在。
Gillison说，与利用大麻相联系的其它行为可能能够负责，大麻中的化学药物，称为大麻素类，能够影响免疫系统清除病毒感染的能力。
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作者:admin@医学,生命科学 2010-11-28 17:11
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