New HPV Vaccine Guidelines Address Three Key Issues:
- The ACS endorses catch-up vaccinations for all through the age of 26
- The recommended age of initial vaccination is now 9 -12, down from 11 – 12 years
- The ACS does not endorse vaccination for adults aged 27-45 years
For those over 26, the new guidelines represent an even bigger change: The ACS does not recommend the vaccination after age 26 (despite the FDA’s June approval for Gardasil9 in preventing head and neck cancer in those up to age 45).
Read More“We’re seeing evidence that starting vaccination at age 9 or 10 has potential benefits that are expected to lead to higher vaccination rates, resulting in increased numbers of cancers prevented compared to starting at ages age 11 and 12,” said Debbie Saslow, Ph.D., managing director, HPV & GYN Cancers for the American Cancer Society.
“We recommend strongly that children are vaccinated against HPV before they are sexually active,” says Dr. Jessica Geiger, a medical oncologist at Cleveland Clinic Cancer Center.
Because HPV is primarily transmitted during sexual contact, the early age recommendation is meant to ensure that vaccinations occur well before young people become sexually active. Still, some parents object to the vaccine, suggesting that it will encourage sexual activity early on.
"There are no data to support that," Dr. Jonathan Berek, Director of the Stanford Women's Cancer Center told SurvivorNet. "Some people call it a 'sex vaccine,' but that's not true. It's an anti-cancer vaccine."
“The vast majority of humans in the U.S. will eventually get infected with human papillomavirus,” says Dr. Allen S. Ho is a head and neck surgeon at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center.
The ACS also says there has been a global shortage of HPV vaccine that is expected to continue for the next several years.
What is HPV and How Does it Cause Cancer?
The human papillomavirus (HPV) is a highly common sexually transmitted virus. About 80 percent of people who are sexually active will end up infected with HPV at some point in their lives.
Most of the time, the body's immune system naturally clears the HPV on its own and the person never experiences health problems or symptoms.
But if a person contracts one of the "high-risk" strains of HPV (out of roughly 100, there are about 14 'high-risk' strains of HPV), the infection can linger, ultimately damaging cell DNA and resulting in cancer-causing mutations.
HPV Awareness Is Lacking
According to a national survey, more than 70 percent of adults do not know that the human papillomavirus (HPV) can cause oral, anal, and penile cancers. This knowledge gap comes even as famous actors such as Michael Douglas and Marcia Cross have opened up to the public about surviving these cancers themselves — and have confirmed that their cancers were HPV-related.
RELATED: More than 70% of Americans Don't Know that HPV Can Cause Anal, Oral, and Penile Cancers
The numbers are especially troubling given that HPV is responsible for 34,800 cases of cancer in the U.S. each year90 percent of which could be prevented with the HPV vaccine. People are at-risk for avoidable cancers simply because they don't know that risk exists. The survey also revealed that only 19 percent of men and 31.5 percent of women eligible for vaccination received HPV vaccine recommendations from their doctors.
“HPV vaccination campaigns have focused heavily on cervical cancer prevention in women," Dr. Ashish Deshmukh of UTHealth School of Public Health, who led the study, said. "Our findings demonstrate a need to educate both sexes regarding HPV and HPV vaccination."
“First Elimination Of A Cancer In History”
“The combination of HPV vaccination and cervical cancer screening has the potential to prevent tens of thousands of cancers caused by HPV each year in this country and to eliminate cervical cancer as a public health problem in the coming decades,” conclude the authors of the updated ACS guidelines.
“Vaccination of all children between ages 9 and 12 years will prevent >90% of the cervical, oropharyngeal, anal, vaginal, vulvar, and penile cancers that are caused by HPV and, combined with screening and the treatment of cervical precancers, can lead to the first elimination of a cancer in history.”
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