Michael Douglas' public relations team went into damage control mode Monday, insisting the actor never said he contracted throat cancer from oral sex. 
 
 “He wants to make it very clear he never said that was the particular cause of his particular cancer,” Douglas’ publicist, Allen Burry, told the Daily News. 
 
 Douglas’ flack was forced to backtrack after his boss, in an eyebrow-raising interview with The Guardian newspaper, blamed his cancer on “a sexually transmitted disease that causes cancer.” 
 
 Douglas attends the One Centennial Sensation, the 100th birthday celebration of the American Cancer Society, at the Hudson Theatre Monday evening. “This particular cancer is caused by HPV," he says in a recent interview. (Ben Gabbe/Getty Images) 
 
 “This particular cancer is caused by HPV, which actually comes about from” oral sex, he said. 
 
 The 68-year-old star of “Basic Instinct” and “Wall Street” had previously blamed the cancer that sidelined him on nicotine and alcohol. 
 
 Catherine Zeta-Jones won’t get the cancer from husband Michael Douglas, says the expert. (Charles Eshelman/FilmMagic) 
 
 Burry refused to concede Douglas’ words might have caused people to conclude he got cancer from sex. And when pressed whether Douglas tested positive for one of the human papilloma virus strains linked to oral cancer, Burry said, “I don’t think it’s really anybody’s business anymore.” 
 
 Douglas was honored by the American Cancer Society Monday at the Hudson Theater. “I have one footnote to make,” he said to laughter. “I’ve become, I think, in the past 24 hours a sort of poster boy for oral cancer, and just so you all understand, I think we would all love to know where our cancer comes from. 
 
 A gaunt-looking Michael Douglas pictured in 2010 when the actor was undergoing chemotherapy. (INFPhoto.com) 
 
 “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.” 
 
 His ex-wife Diandra told TMZ.com that she doesn’t have HPV — and her actor ex didn’t catch anything from her. 
 
 Catherine Zeta-Jones and Michael Douglas. The actor took a moment to clarify his comments to The Guardian when he was honored Monday night by the American Cancer Society. “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.” (Richard Corkery/New York Daily News) 
 
 Douglas’ wife, actress Catherine Zeta-Jones, had no comment. 
 
 hevans@nydailynews.com ||||| GlaxoSmithKline Plc’s (GSK) Cervarix vaccine prevented a viral infection that’s transmitted by oral sex and is linked to throat cancer such as the type Michael Douglas suffered from, a study found. 
 
 In a trial among 5,800 women in Costa Rica, there were 93 percent fewer oral infections with human papillomavirus, or HPV, among those who got Cervarix after four years than those who got a hepatitis A vaccine, according to a study published yesterday in the journal Plos One. 
 
 The finding is the first to show that a vaccine already approved to prevent cervical cancer caused by HPV infection can also prevent the virus being acquired orally, according to the International Agency for Research on Cancer, which led the study. The virus is almost three times more common among men than women and men are four times more likely to get oropharyngeal cancer, leading to calls for boys to be routinely vaccinated against HPV as well as girls. 
 
 “If similar results are observed in men, vaccination of boys may become an important public health measure,” Rolando Herrero, who led the research at the Lyon, France-based IARC, said in a statement today. 
 
 Both Cervarix and Merck & Co. (MRK)’s Gardasil are approved for girls, and Merck’s vaccine is also approved for boys. Neither is approved to prevent oral cancers. 
 
 The virus infects four out of five sexually active people at some point in their lives and is known to cause cervical, vulvar, vaginal, penile and anal cancer. HPV may cause more cases of throat cancer in men than smoking, according to a 2011 report that predicted throat cancers linked to the virus would become more common than HPV-related cervical cancer by 2020. 
 
 Oral Sex 
 
 About 10 percent of men are orally infected with HPV, compared with 3.6 percent of women, according to a 2012 study. 
 
 Douglas, 68, an Academy Award-winning actor and star of films including “Wall Street” and “Fatal Attraction,” was quoted by the U.K.’s Guardian newspaper last month as saying that his throat cancer, diagnosed in 2010, was caused by oral sex, not smoking or drinking. 
 
 Douglas said in an interview he’s now cancer-free, and has check-ups every six months, the Guardian reported. 
 
 Some countries have made the HPV vaccines available for boys as well as girls. In the U.S., where two-thirds of teenagers and young adults say they have had oral sex, the shots are recommended for boys ages 11 and 12. More than 280,000 boys in Australia will be eligible for free doses of Merck’s Gardasil this year, estimated to prevent a quarter of new HPV infections, Health Minister Tanya Plibersek said in February. 
 
 The study was funded by the U.S. National Cancer Institute and London-based Glaxo provided the vaccines used in the trial. 
 
 To contact the reporter on this story: Simeon Bennett in Geneva at sbennett9@bloomberg.net 
 
 To contact the editor responsible for this story: Phil Serafino at pserafino@bloomberg.net
– Michael Douglas has backtracked after hitting the headlines by saying his throat cancer was caused by oral sex instead of smoking and drinking. The actor's publicist now says that he wasn't talking about his own cancer being caused by the human papilloma virus, the BBC reports. The reversal prompted the Guardian to release audio of its interview with Douglas, in which the actor says he doesn't regret his years of smoking and drinking, because "this particular cancer is caused by something called HPV, which actually comes about from cunnilingus." At an American Cancer Society event in New York last night, Douglas said he had been trying to raise awareness of the link between HPV and throat cancer, the New York Daily News reports. "I've become, I think, in the past 24 hours a sort of poster boy for oral cancer, and just so you all understand, I think we would all love to know where our cancer comes from," he told the audience. "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."