HPV Vaccine Might Shield Women Against Throat Cancer: Study | WPN World People News

Young women who are vaccinated against the human papillomavirus (HPV) not only protect themselves from cervical cancer, but from throat cancer as well, a new study suggests.

Many of the increasing number of throat cancers, seen mostly in developed countries, are caused by HPV infection and the HPV vaccine might prevent many of these cancers, the researchers say.

Study found the women who had the HPV vaccine had much less infection than the women who hadn't.

There was a 90 percent reduction in the prevalence of HPV infection in the women who received the vaccine compared to the women who had not.

HPV infection is strongly associated with cancer of the oral cavity. It is possible that the prevention of the infection will also lead to the prevention of these cancers.

The HPV vaccine has enormous benefit, because of the cervical cancer prevention and the anal cancer prevention, and it can even prevent infections in their sexual partners.

Expert said boys, too, should be vaccinated to protect them from oral cancers. Oral cancer is much more prevalent among men than in women.

A 2011 study, HPV-positive oral cancers increased from 16 percent of all oral cancers in the 1980s to 70 percent in the early 2000s.

And nearly 42,000 Americans will be diagnosed with oral and throat cancer in 2013, and more than 8,000 people will die from these conditions.

For the new study, the researchers randomly assigned more than 7,400 women aged 18 to 25 to either receive the HPV vaccine or a vaccine against hepatitis A, as a comparison.

Women in the HPV vaccine group were given Cervarix, one of two vaccines available for HPV prevention. (The other is Gardasil.)

Four years later, the researchers found the HPV vaccine was 93 percent effective in preventing throat cancer. Among women who received the HPV vaccine, only one patient showed an oral HPV infection, compared with 15 in the hepatitis A vaccine group, the researchers found.

The HPV vaccine costs $130 a dose and because three shots are required, the total cost is about $390, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. There are government programs that can help offset these costs for some patients.

Because HPV is a sexually transmitted infection, the vaccine is most effective when given before someone is sexually active. Eighty percent of people will test positive for HPV infection within five years of becoming sexually active.

That's why the CDC recommends the vaccine for adolescent girls and boys starting at age 11.

The study is really preliminary information. It will provide a basis to begin to study how the vaccine will help to protect against throat cancer.

Source: U.S. Dept of Health & Human Services