Iron Maiden’s Bruce Dickinson Beats Cancer He Contracted From Oral Sex

The lead vocalist for Iron Maiden recently opened up on a radio interview about beating oral cancer AND how he contracted that cancer from oral sex. In an interview with Sirius XM’s Eddie Trunk, Bruce Dickinson discussed his recent triumph over cancer and how the oral cancer has affected his singing.

ConsequenceOfSound reports:

“It’s a virus,” Dickinson explained. “HPV — human papilloma virus. They all are. I’m almost willing to bet, anytime you hear about somebody who gets tonsil cancer, throat cancer, lung cancer, whatever it is, if they’re not heavy smokers and they’re not massive, heavy drinkers, it’s almost inevitably [HPV].”
Of course, as a sexually transmitted virus, there’s really only one way to contract HPV in the mouth, and that’s through oral sex. As Dickinson learned, there’s a sharp increase in this type of cancer for cunning linguists over the age of 40. “There’s a five hundred percent increase in this type of cancer in men over forty — five hundred percent increase. It’s massive. It’s the same virus that causes cervical cancer. The diagnosis is the same. It’s the same words they use.”
“And everybody makes the jokes about Michael Douglas, [who claimed that cunnilingus could have caused his throat cancer,] ’cause he was having oral sex,” Dickinson continued, “and it’s just, like, okay, we need to get over that one, guys, because this is kind of serious. There’s hundreds of thousands of people at risk for this.” He also offered some advice to his fellow middle-aged um, givers. “And guys should know, if you get a lump here, and you’re over forty, don’t just assume antibiotics will get rid of it. Go and properly get it checked out. It’s important.”

He makes a solid point. I think as a culture we’re still pretty stuck on joking about Michael Douglas saying he contracted throat cancer from oral sex. We really, really need to get past that and start educating the (older) public on this very real danger.