HPV vaccines prevent cancer in both men and women, new research shows

New research suggests that the HPV vaccine prevents cancer in men as well as women, but in the United States, fewer boys than girls are vaccinated.

The HPV vaccine was developed to prevent cervical cancer in women, and experts credit it and screening with reducing cervical cancer rates.

Evidence that vaccines prevent HPV-related cancers in men has been slower to emerge, but new research suggests that vaccinated men have fewer mouth and throat cancers than those who did not receive the vaccine.

These cancers are more than 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 receiving the vaccine.

For men, there were benefits too.

Vaccinated men had a lower risk of developing HPV-related cancers, such as cancers of the anus, penis, 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 to 26 among HPV-vaccinated men.

“We think the maximum benefit of the vaccine will actually occur within 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. “What we’re showing here is a first 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 are lagging behind women in HPV vaccination.

HPV, or human papillomavirus, is very common and is transmitted through sexual relations.

Most HPV infections cause no symptoms and go away without treatment.

Others turn into cancer, about 37,000 cases a year, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

In the United States, 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 shots are recommended for anyone under 26 who has not been vaccinated.

In the second study, researchers examined self- and parent-reported HPV vaccination rates among preteens and young adults as part of a large government survey.

From 2011 to 2020, vaccination rates increased from 38% to 49% among women and among men from 8% to 36%.

“The HPV vaccination rate among young men has more than quadrupled over the past decade, although vaccination rates among young men remain lower than those among women,” said the co-author of the paper. study, Dr. Danh Nguyen of the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at 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 men who have not been vaccinated can still get vaccinated.

“It’s really important that adolescents are exposed to the vaccine before they are exposed to the virus,” she said.