The lump on the side of Glenn Moog’s neck kept getting bigger and bigger. What the 57-year-old realtor thought was an infected lymph node, though, turned out to be something much more serious.
A few months after the lump appeared, he visited a nurse practitioner who insisted on further testing. Now.
“Within two days of going to that initial appointment, they told me I had stage four throat-neck cancer,” Moog, of Worthington, Ohio, says.
Cancer doesn’t run in his family, so it didn’t make sense to him. It turned out his cancer grew from HPV, aka human papillomavirus. And the Generation X-er is far from alone.
The medical community has grown worried about the increasing rates of HPV-related throat and mouth cancers. Oropharyngeal cancer (or middle throat cancer) could be one of the most common cancers for middle-aged men in the U.S. by 2045, according to recent estimates, and the most common for elderly men in the next decade.
“HPV is really well-known to cause cervical cancer,” says head and neck surgeon Dr. Matthew Old, referencing that HPV is the cause of nearly all cervical cancers. “But for some reason, it also has a predilection for infecting the throat.”
What is HPV?
HPV – a group of viruses – is America’s most common STI, and cancer-causing HPV is typically asymptomatic. Nearly everyone who is sexually active will get an HPV infection months or years after they start having sex. A vaccine, Gardasil, is typically recommended for 11- and 12-year-olds but can be given as early as age 9; it can thwart up to 90% of HPV-linked cancers. The oldest age you can receive the vaccine is 45.
But it functions best when given early: The virus runs rampant in teenage and collegiate years, according to Old, professor and director of the Department of Otolaryngology – Head and Neck Surgery at The Ohio State University’s Comprehensive Cancer Center.
There are more than 100 types of HPV, and 40 are spread through sexual contact in genital areas, mouth and throat. The same types that cause cervical cancers also cause throat cancers.
What does HPV look like? Here’s what happens when it causes cancer.
Moog had 35 radiation treatments – every weekday for seven weeks – and five rounds of chemo intermittently. By week three or four, he was in bad shape.
He couldn’t eat for months. He had a feeding tube. He lost almost 50 pounds.
“You can’t swallow. I was on so much pain medication. I wasn’t really functioning at what I would consider a normal level,” he says. “So I was just basically resigned to the couch. I would get up and go to treatment, come back and be on the couch and I was nauseous almost the entire time I was awake.”
Six years later, he’s now cancer-free and on yearly doctor visits – and advocating for people to get vaccinated if eligible.
“You can’t really function and work while you’re going through this kind of treatment,” he says. “I would say, just be financially prepared and make sure that you’re ready for it if you get diagnosed, but I think first and foremost go get the vaccination, so you don’t have to worry about it.”
Important:They found a lump. Doctors said not to worry. These are the stories of men with breast cancer.
The future of HPV and throat, mouth cancer
Gen X never had the vaccine available growing up, hence the thinking for a continued increase in cases. In the U.S., it’s estimated that HPV is responsible for 70% of oropharyngeal cancers. Other high-risk factors include smoking and drinking alcohol.
Screening-wise, there’s not much to do for HPV and HPV-related illnesses beyond pap smears for women to check for cervical cancer. Blood and saliva tests can screen for HPV but they’re not part of protocols. That could change someday.
“It’s on the horizon that we’ll have either a blood test or saliva test to be able to screen and understand who’s been exposed, and of those that have been exposed who’s at risk for developing head and neck cancer, and what can we do about it,” Old says.
In case you missed:He wasn’t a smoker, but still got throat cancer. The cause? A virus that could’ve been in his body for decades.
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