NY Times: Cunnilingus is more likely to lead to throat cancer than fellatio

Human papillomavirus, or HPV, is a leading cause of throat cancer, and it is sexually transmitted. But how the timing, number and types of sexual behaviors affect the risk, and why some people develop cancer and others don’t, are still open questions. Researchers are beginning to suggest some possible answers.....

“There is some evidence that cunnilingus is more infective than fellatio,” said the senior author, Gypsyamber D’Souza, a professor of epidemiology at Johns Hopkins. “But that’s a surrogate for more nuanced behavior. Many patients have not engaged in high-risk sex behavior and are unlucky enough to still get this. It’s not just sexual partners, but the timing, the kind of practice, the nature of the partners and other factors, plus aspects of our own immunological response that are all involved in this.”

The cancer patients in the study were about 80 percent more likely than those without cancer to have ever performed oral sex on a partner. They were also younger when they first did so — 37 percent of patients were younger than 18 the first time they performed oral sex, compared with 23 percent of controls — and they were more likely to have performed oral sex at their sexual debut.

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/12/well/live/sex-hpv-cancer.html