Scientists Link HPV To High Esophageal Cancer Risk
By: Chioma Umeha Scientists have said that being infected with human papillomavirus (HPV) exposes one to high risk of having esophageal cancer. An agency report yesterday said that latest review of previous research linked infection with human papillomavirus (HPV) to a three-fold high chance of esophageal cancer. “This doesn’t mean it is present in all (esophageal cancers), but it may be a factor in a certain proportion of cases,” said Dr. Surabhi Liyanage, the study’s lead author. HPV is a very common sexually transmitted virus that is known to cause cervical cancer, anal cancer and some cancers of the reproductive organs and the upper throat. Liyanage, a graduate student at the University of New South Wales in Sydney, Australia, said there’s been a lot of debate among researchers about the role of HPV in cancer of the esophagus because most of the studies to date have been small and used disparate methods that make them hard to compare. According to the National Cancer