Doctors warn they are seeing throat cancer cases in ‘much younger patients’ and suggest oral sex is driving the worrying trend.
A new report shows hundreds more people are dying from the disease than before the Covid pandemic with almost a 50 per cent increase in cases since 2013.
The new findings add to previous research that found since the early 90s, rates of head and neck cancer have surged by more than a third in Britain — with the trend being driven partly by younger patients being diagnosed.
Cancer Research UK data shows a 60 per cent rise in women and a 34 per cent rise in men aged 25 to 49, between 1993 and 2019.
Smoking, alcohol and human papillomavirus (HPV) — a normally harmless virus that is spread sexually and through skin contact — are the primary causes.
The latest report, prepared by the Office for Health Improvement and Disparities (OHID) and the University of Sheffield, analysed data from 2013 to 2020.
It found there were 10,735 head and neck cancer cases in England in 2019, prior to the Covid-19 pandemic.
By 2021, this figure had reached 11,000 — and today the NHS reports there are 12,400 diagnoses a year.
Similar, deaths have risen. In 2019, there were 3,213 lives lost to head and neck cancer. Within one year this increased to 3,469.
OHID said the increase had been driven by a rise in oropharyngeal cancer, a form of the disease that starts in the part of the throat just behind the mouth and includes tonsil cancer and cancer in the back of the tongue.
Figures show there were 3,834 new cases of oropharyngeal cancer in 2019, a 47 per cent increase since 2013.
Some 13,000 new head and neck cancers are already diagnosed in the UK every year and with about 71,100 in the US.
Professor Ali Khurram, an expert in the disease at the University of Sheffield, added: ‘Head and neck cancer can have a devastating effect on the lives of people with the disease and their families.
‘Although head and neck cancer is one of the most common cancers in England with a significantly worse survival compared to other cancers, its awareness among the public, health professionals and funding organisations is poor.
Doctors have found that oral sex is the biggest risk factors for this type of cancer — outpacing smoking, alcohol consumption and an unhealthy diet.
This is because the acts can lead to an HPV infection at the back of the throat or near the tonsil.
Incidence rates for head and neck cancer in the UK are highest in people aged 65 to 69, but doctors say they are seeing more cases in young people under 50.
Dr Hisham Mehanna, from the UK’s University of Birmingham, said 70 percent of cases of throat cancer are caused by HPV which has been linked to multiple forms of cancers.
He said people with multiple oral sex partners have an up to nine-fold increased risk of throat cancer, also known as oropharyngeal cancer.
Prof Khurram said: ‘There is poor awareness of the disease and the causative factors. We are seeing these cancers in much younger patients now.