Incidents of throat cancer among males have exploded. The prime suspect is the human papillomavirus (HPV), which affects both females and males. HPV transmission can happen with any kind of genital contact with someone who has HPV—intercourse isn't necessary.

Increasingly, Merck's Gardasil - the only vaccine available, is controversial now because it's recommended for pre-pubescent females (up to age 26), prevents cervical cancer in 75% of females - may well become the standard for preventing infection/cancer among males as well. It also helps protect girls and young women ages 9 to 26 against 70% of vaginal cancer cases and up to 50% of vulvar cancer cases.

Best of luck to Mr. Douglas.

Randy from Maine.

Randy,

Great post Man!

Hi Randy! It's been a long time since I've read anything from you on the Scoop. Actually, it's been a long time since I've read anything on the Scoop. I finally figured out that the Scoop is no Scoop at all!

Re subject at hand.... I don't understand why Merck's Gardasil is "controversial" for pre-pubescent females? Please explain..... I have a pre-pubescent female at home and I want to protect her as much as I can. Thanks!

Hey Auzzie! Notice, one can no longer post any comments to Hazlett's column. They moved her column to the todayshow.com website - no comments allowed! Her temper tantrums must have worked.

The State of Texas tried to make vaccines for HPV mandatory - there was a hue and cry (muy surprised!) from the residents - so TX backed down.

I have a good male friend (str8) who has twice been through throat cancer - thankfully he went into remission both times. But his oncologist stated the cause of his cancer was HPV.

In the Douglas case, the cause has yet to be stated (if it ever will). But a good resource, aside from webMD, etc., for HPV info is: http://tinyurl.com/26kzyxb

It's Merck's Gardasil website, and a good source of info for all HPV-related maladies. Full disclosure - I own Merck stock!

Randy from Maine.

Auzzie - Gardasil has had very short testing period. They do not know the long term effects of it. There's also the fact that it's a vaccine directly related to sex, and many conservatives have moral objections to it (that's not even on my personal list of issues with it). I think it also provides a false sense of security as it only protects against types 6, 11, 16, and 18 of HPV while there are more than 100 types. It's also not a "cervical cancer cure" as they have touted it.

As a mother of two small girls I refuse to ever have them vaccinated with that crap. There have been issues with blood clots, seizures, paralysis, and even death. Frankly I'd rather take my daughters in every single year for pelvic exams and pap smears than put Gardasil into them. There are too many reports of adverse side effects, and the they just don't know what happens 15 years down the road. Women may need boosters for life, there could be more complications giving the vaccines to older women, the unknowns of it are simply too great of a risk to me.

Proper protection when having sex, yearly pap smears, and routine STD testing should be common for all girls once they begin menstruation. Yes, even if they're not sexually active, being in the habit of doing it and not being ashamed to ask for the tests to be done is important.

Michael Douglas used to smoke 40 cigarettes a day. He also went into rehab in 1992 for alcoholism and drug addiction.

I totally agree with you! I have a 5yo girl and I definately have my doubts about that vac.

Although this is off-topic (my apologies in advance), just wanted to respond re: Gardasil. Yes, there have been side effects. Almost all medications have side effects from relatively benign to serious in a usually small percent of the population. But that doesn't mean that something isn't worth the risk. HPV-16 and -18 cause up to 70% of cervical cancers. HPV-6 and -11 are responsible for up to 90% of genital warts, and can cause of laryngeal papillomas - tumors that grow inside the larynx and air passages from nose to lungs. Given that more than 40 million doses of Gardasil have been given (as of 2/2009) and a reported fatality rate of 32, that gives a greater than 1 in 1 million chance of dying from a Gardasil injection. But approx. 4,600 women in the US alone will die of cervical cancer annually. Given those stats, I'll take the Gardasil odds.

Gardasil isn't meant to replace annual pap smears and routine testing -- it's just another means of protection. BTW, if you're going to rely on tests, just confirm with your doc that your STD test includes an HPV test because a lot of them don't. As for safe sex, it's a good idea for a lot of reasons, but most committed, monogamous couples don't practice safe sex, so HPV transmission is still possible if one partner unknowingly has the virus. Since an estimated 20 million people have the virus already, why contribute further to spreading it if it is preventable?

Not suggesting all young girls should be vaccinated. Am suggesting that everyone do their own research and not rely on hearsay. Then you can make the right decision for yourself or your daughters. And no, I don't own stock in Merck. But my stepmother had cervical cancer, and my goddaughter is a public health official in NYC who worked on a project there helping educate high school girls on HPV prevention. What I saw my stepmom go thru, and what I learned from niece about infection and transmission rates, scared the he!! out of me. If I had a daughter, I'd have her vaccinated. Again, apologies for being off-topic, and lengthy.

ferrferr: Where did you get your MD?

Smoking and drinking are firmly linked to throat cancer.

myerspercussion are you insinuating that you now need medical license to respond to medical related stuff on Newsvine? I do not have a medical degree, but I do look into things especially that which may have direct impact to my children.

There have been enough issues in the short time that Gardasil has been around to make me take pause as a parent. I was living in Texas at the time Gov. Perry was attempting to mandate the vaccination, so I have been following Gardasil for some time.

Also, Lizzie is a bit off on the statistics..

As of May 31, 2010, approximately 29.5 million doses of Gardasil were distributed in the United States.

As of May 31, 2010, there were 16,140 VAERS reports of adverse events following Gardasil vaccination in the United States. Of these reports, 92% were reports of events considered to be non-serious, and 8% were reports of events considered serious.

As of May 31, 2010, there have been 53 U.S. reports of death among females who have received Gardasil.

That means the death rate would be more like 1 in every 556,604.

The fact still remains that there are no long term studies on the vaccine. I'm NOT going to inject my children with something that could potentially do more damage than good. Parents need to research such things and not blindly accept what they are told as the absolute truth.

And since when have pharmaceutical companies had the best interest of their consumers in mind over their profit margins?

ferrferr-

You are using stats from US. My stats were worldwide and were, as stated, from Feb. 2009. That being said, it seems you quoted the CDC/VAERS stats which, I would hope, does have the best interests of US people in mind. So if we stick to the CDC stats, let's include all of them so people get a complete picture.

The CDC report you quote goes on to say this about the 53 deaths: "Twenty nine of these reports have been confirmed and 24 remain unconfirmed due to no identifiable patient information in the report such as a name and contact information to confirm the report. Confirmed reports are those that scientists have followed up on and have verified the claim. In the 29 reports confirmed, there was no unusual pattern or clustering to the deaths that would suggest that they were caused by the vaccine."

So 29 confirmed deaths (even if they cannot be attributed to the vaccine) as a percent of 29.5 million doses still gives odds of approx. 1 in 1 million. Contrast that with the USCS report on cervical cancer: "In 2006,* 11,982 women in the United States were told they had cervical cancer, and 3,976 died from the disease." (*latest year for which stats are available; USCS is the US Cancer Statistics, produced by the CDC and the National Cancer Institute). I'll still take the Gardasil odds.

The 8% of serious events reported to VAERS (Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System) include Guillan-Barre syndrome and blood clots, in addition to the deaths mentioned above. These have been studied and the conclusion is that the GBS rate is consistent with the rate expected in the general population at large -- there is no increase in cases of GBS. Also, most of those who experienced blood clots may have been prone to clotting due to birth control pills, smoking, obesity, and other health factors. In other words, it has not been shown conclusively that the vaccine caused these events.

For those who would like to do their own research, the information is here:http://www.cdc.gov/vaccinesafety/vaccines/hpv/gardasil.html

As I mentioned in my earlier post, everyone should do their own thorough research rather than rely on hearsay or incomplete reports. Only then can you make an informed decision.

Well Lizzie, you can feel free to pump Gardasil into your hypothetical children, and tout the magnificence of it. I on the other hand, as I said prior, have seen enough negative effects from it in such a short span of time that it gives me pause as a parent. It will not touch my daughters and I will be more than happy to continue exposing the bad side of it to those who have not done any research themselves. Sorry I don't trust a chemical going into my young daughters that has a mere 5 years of clinical studies done.

ferrferr ... and you are free to risk your daughters' health, it's all a personal choice. My mother had a reaction like yours to the polio vaccine, and refused to have me vaccinated. She convinced others as well. Luckily for me, I did not contract polio. Other children were not as lucky. A good friend of mine died from it, and two others were partially paralyzed. Fear of vaccinations is quite common, not entirely groundless, but does lead people to take risks (not vaccinating) that they later regret. I would encourage you to seek advice from your childrens' physician. Oh, yeah, I am ancient ... was little when the first Salk vaccine came out.

Get that from Bill Hicks? One of our greatest teachers...

How about this one....

“Health nuts are going to feel stupid someday, lying in hospitals dying of nothing.” - George Carlin

V...

LOL

Geezo123-FYI, Jim Fixx died because he felt that because of his running for fitness, that he didn't need to see the doctor. His father died at 42, bad ticker. It was a heredity thing, and had he gone to a doctor regularly, maybe he could have prolonged his life. We will never know.
Since Kirk Douglas is in his 90's Michael Douglas isn't in the same position as Jim Fixx.
Throat Cancer is a pretty serious disease that if not caught early enough is pretty tragic. I hope the best for Michael, as I have enjoyed his movies.

You missed the point...........Cancer can strike anyone at anytime no matter how you have lived or tried to avoid it. I know of people that have died from lung cancer and never smoked a day in their life............my husband has survived inoperable lung cancer for over 5 years now. Pancreatic cancer took my friend 2 months ago.........leave the preaching to the padres'

If it was caused by HPV, how did he get it in his throat?

"Think Wart, think".

Chantix is great, if you can afford it. These days, most insurance companies don't cover it!

Chantix caused me the same side effects as the miserable withdrawal symptoms I had when I quit cold turkey 2 years later. It had no effect on reducing my desire to smoke. So, in my case Chantix was like taking nothing at all. My employer offered Chantix for no inurance co-pay. Dozens of my fellow employees tried it. Only 2 were tobacco free 6 months later.

I used this thing called "quitting cold turkey" 3 years ago, and it was totally free!

Yeah but it was a trip thru hell

I quit cold turkey 26 years ago after smoking 10 years. (52 now) No problem. I just came to the conclusion that I would be better off not smoking. One of the better decisons of my life.

I took Chantix, and was one of the ones who flipped out-- I was aggrivated, frustrated, and flat out mean... I think I'd rather smoke than take that "crap" again... :)

Thank you Can't stand the smell of it! Congrats to you as well!

I smoked for 45 years and quit Sept. '09 by switching to an electronic cig...no tar, no toxins, just good 'ol water vaping.

I nixed cigs 4 years ago cold turkey. Seemed to be the only way to do it for me. Best decision I ever made.

Quit in 2002 after 36 years of smoking! Had a squamous cell carcinoma tumor under my tongue. Surgery, and six weeks of radiation. All is good now! Michael will be fine!

i was a smoker in junior high. a friends mother took us to school, and i found under the seat half a pack of virginia slims. so i took up smoking when i walked home from school. i hid in someone's tool shed and smoked. i did this daily for five days. then i was out of cigs. so i stopped. didn't dare go to the grocery store and ask for smokes. i was fourteen.

plus...how could i ask for virginia slims?

Jim Fixx was also a smoker.

Is that true? Why would he, on one hand be vigilant about his body and then smoke cigarettes? Doesn't make any sense at all.

Your right. My father died from a heart attack when he was 58. He had his first attack when he was in his mid forties. Wasnt overweight. He quit smoking after his first attack, but started up again a fews months after. He smoked, but started running a few years before his death. He was digging up a tree stump in his front yard when he died. Some people are just stubborn, and think they can get away with living on the edge.

Yeah I think I saw him grazing in a wheat field just the other day

Weed? Are you serious? Get a life

That was worth saying twice

actually D-352740 and roho-2212695, your statement was quite ignorant, and implies that drugs are the cause, when it could easily be that he simply developed cancer in his throat.

VERY doubtful, but... Ironically, weed would help him with the harmful symptoms, and reactions he gets from the treatment... And he's now eligible for a prescription for some california medical maraijuana?

Weed? Are you serious? Get a life (I posted this twice to)

"I know this guy" who's been burning weed for 35 years and he hasn't the first indication of cancer. Burns a few grains a day and takes away his chronic pain. His doc says it's good for him in moderate doses.

He quit drinking years ago but has a problem with brownies, pizza, and Cheetos.

And he is REALLY happy with the adjustments he made... Seriously, weed over booze, and all he has to worry about is a six pack, and I'm not talkin' beer!!! LOL thanks Handgunner, you definately said what so few are afraid to...

could be from weed

could be from weed

Handgunner,

You get a check mark. Now I want to debate a "legalize marijuana" post!! Also all those brownies, pizza and cheetos are making me hungry. MMM, cheeetos

Good Ah-nold reference! I use that line on my wife frequently...karma is a bitch, though!

Well said! Here's hoping for a complete recovery for Michael!

Kirk Douglas played Spartacus, not Hercules

Easy mistake to make.They both wore skirts.

Kirk Douglas was never in a Hercules movie.

But damned if he didn't look hot in that skirt.

AMEN!!! Sexy as hell...

IndieVote~~I agree completly. Someone can take care of themselves, and still develope serious ailments, in spite of that, while others take risks, and do not treat their bodies with respect. I've tried to take care of myself for many years, and yet, I got delt the bad hand (genetically) in my family. I have several different genetic heart ailment, along with arthritis. But I hate to think of the shape I'd be in, had I not taken care of myself for all these years, and even at that, I'm sure I could have done more.

Listerine at bedtime and first thing in the morning. Problem solved.

Although I prefer Wine and cigs also ! Each to their own.

Ill take Catherine off his hands in this difficult time

Thanks the vons as I have too many Joneses on my hands now !

They don't use radiation and chemo for non-cancerous tumors!

Well put. Tumors can be malignant or benign, depending on the outcome of the biopsy.

Johnny, I think so. They believe the reason for the increase in throat ailments for male and female is related to oral sex.

Get busy??? You ARE a romantic, Mr Salami

thats all she says is "get busy" no for play no sexy talk just "get busy"?

boy is she a loving and caring and sexy woman. i hope she at least "gets busy" herself on you while your busy on her.

Maybe that is foreplay... To each his own...

it gets things over quicker for the woman...so i can get back to law and order svu