NNew research suggests that the HPV vaccine is preventing cancer in men as well as women, but fewer boys than girls are getting the shots in the United States.
The HPV vaccine was developed to prevent cervical cancer in women, and experts credit it, along with screening, for reducing cervical cancer rates. Evidence that vaccines are preventing HPV-related cancers in men has been slow to emerge, but new research suggests that vaccinated men have fewer cancers than men. mouth and throat compared to those who did not take the injections. These types of cancer are twice as common in men as in women.
For the study, researchers compared 3.4 million people of similar ages — half vaccinated versus half unvaccinated — in a large health care dataset.
As expected, vaccinated women had a lower risk of developing cervical cancer at least five years after getting the vaccines. For men, there were also benefits. Vaccinated men had a lower risk of developing any HPV-related cancer, such as cancer of the anus, penis and mouth and throat.
These cancers take years to develop, so the numbers were low: There were 57 HPV-related cancers among unvaccinated men – mostly head and neck cancers – compared with 26 among men who received the HPV vaccine. .
“We believe that the maximum benefit from the vaccine will really occur in the next two to three decades,” said study co-author Dr. Joseph Curry, a head and neck surgeon at the Sidney Kimmel Cancer Center in Philadelphia. showing here is an initial wave of effect.”
The results of the study and a second were released Thursday by the American Society of Clinical Oncology and will be discussed next month at its annual meeting in Chicago. The second study shows that vaccination rates are increasing, but men lag behind women in HPV vaccination.
HPV, or human papillomavirus, is very common and spreads through sex. Most HPV infections cause no symptoms and go away without treatment. Others develop into cancer, about 37,000 cases per year, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
In the USA, the HPV vaccine has been recommended since 2006 for girls aged 11 or 12, and since 2011 for boys of the same age. Catch-up vaccines are recommended for anyone up to age 26 who has not been vaccinated.
In the second study, researchers looked at self- and parent-reported HPV vaccination rates in pre-teens and young adults in a large government survey. From 2011 to 2020, vaccination rates increased from 38% to 49% among women and among men from 8% to 36%.
“HPV vaccine uptake among young males has increased more than fourfold over the past decade, although vaccination rates among young males still lag behind females,” said study co-author Dr. Danh Nguyen of the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas.
Parents of boys, as well as girls, should know that HPV vaccines reduce the risk of cancer, said Jasmin Tiro of the University of Chicago Medicine Comprehensive Cancer Center, who was not involved in the research. And young people who have not been vaccinated can still get the shots.
“It is very important that teenagers are exposed to the vaccine before they are exposed to the virus,” she said.
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This story originally appeared on Time.com read the full story
