Maclean’s reports on the growing incidence of cancer of the oropharynx, base of tongue, and tonsils among younger people (20-49) who have never smoked or drank. There is an established “link between sexual behaviour and HPV in the oral cavity” — and some types of HPV or the human papillomavirus cause various cancers. Maclean’s titles its story, “A cancer for the young,” but perhaps “A cancer for the promiscuous” might have been more apt. All that said these cancers are still relatively rare. The newsworthiness of the story is in the dramatic growth of such incidences among those under 50. Of course, the fix offered for this is greater vaccinations (Gardasil), when, as Andrea Mrozek insinuates, questioning of the whole Sexual Revolution is in order.
