Published Jul 8, 2020

Breaking: HPV Vaccine Not Recommended For Adults Over 26, Per New American Cancer Society Guidelines

This new information refutes a prior FDA approval of the vaccine in preventing head and neck cancer in those up to age 45. In addition, it lowers the recommended age for the HPV vaccination to 9-12 years.

Constance Costas

Details

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

New HPV vaccine guidelines, issued by the American Cancer Society (ACS) today, underscore the importance of children ages 9-12 getting the vaccine, which prevents HPV-related cancers like cervical and throat cancer. (This is down from the previously recommended age-range of 11-12.)

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).

Of this recent shift, Judith A. Smith, Associate Professor at UT Health McGovern Medical Center, who has focused extensively on the HPV vaccination’s durability of response, told SurvivorNet: “The current data does not support HPV vaccination against head and neck cancers in patients over 27 at this time.”

For the younger set, the new age-guidelines offer benefits: Routine vaccination with two doses of Gardasil9 — which earned FDA-approval in 2006 — for both boys and girls between ages 9 and 12 is expected to increase the number of cancers prevented.

“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.

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.”

Learn more about SurvivorNet's rigorous medical review process.

Constance Costas is a writer for SurvivorNet.

SurvivorNetTV.
Hope. Science.
Inspiration.

WATCH NOW