The 68-year-old actor seemed to assert in an interview with the U.K.'s Guardian that HPV (the
human papillomavirus) contracted through oral sex led to his throat cancer diagnosis in 2010.
Except, as Douglas clarified at an event in New York Monday night,
he was simply saying that HPV could cause oral cancer ... not that it was the
case for him, specifically.
"I've become, I think, in the past 24 hours a sort of poster
boy for oral cancer," Douglas said while speaking as an honoree at an
American Cancer Society event, theNew York Daily News reports.
"And just so we all understand," Douglas continued,
"I think we would all love to know where our cancer comes from. I simply,
to a reporter, tried to give a little PSA announcement about HPV, a virus that
can cause oral cancer, and is one of the few areas of cancer that can be
controlled and there are vaccinations that kids can get. So that was my
attempt."
Basically, he echoed what his rep said on Monday - that Douglas was
pointing out the various possibilities that could lead to a cancer diagnosis,
rather than saying what the specific cause was for him.
The Guardian, meanwhile, has published an audio clip and transcript of its
interview with the actor, in which Douglas said he didn't think he
"overloaded his system" with drinking or smoking. "No, no ....
[W]ithout getting too specific, this particular cancer is caused by something
called HPV, which actually comes about from cunnilingus."
Whatever caused the tumor that doctors found in Douglas' throat
three years ago, two things are clear: one, that he's since beaten the disease, as he said in 2011; and two, he
can consider his awareness campaign a mission accomplished.
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