Peter Kent beats throat cancer, urges HPV vaccination for boys

Peter Kent

Conservative MP Peter Kent noticed something different about his throat one day last November when he was shaving.
The former environment minister was in the midst of a four-week stretch before the House of Commons rose for the holiday break, so he waited a few weeks before going to see his doctor back home in his Thornhill, Ont., riding.
What was originally thought to be a cyst turned out to be Stage IV tongue and throat cancer. It was caused by the human papillomavirus​ (HPV), which Toronto's Sunnybrook Hospital says 75 per cent of Canadians will get at some point.
Nine months later, Kent has been through surgery, seven weeks of radiation and chemo, and as of right now shows no remaining sign of cancer (there will be several years of follow-up tests before his doctors can be certain he's cancer-free).
More