Yale doc: Throat, neck cancers caused by HPV ‘completely preventable’ with vaccine

Author: Ed Stannard Source: www.ctinsider.com NEW HAVEN — While it’s become widely known that the human papilloma virus causes cervical cancer, doctors have more recently discovered HPV is associated with another form of cancer. While cancer of the throat, back of the tongue, tonsils and soft palate (the location of the uvula), known as oropharyngeal cancer, can be caused by smoking or heavy drinking, HPV also has been linked to it, according to Dr. Saral Mehra, section chief for head and neck and otolaryngology surgery at the Yale School of Medicine. “This didn’t exist as far as we knew 20 or 30 years ago,” Mehra said, but it became clear that younger people who didn’t smoke or drink could get this type of cancer. That is why, Mehra said, it is important for all young people to receive the HPV vaccination. “If there’s one message I think we need to get out is we need to vaccinate all of our boys and girls,” he said. “I feel like head and neck cancer is such an important cancer and it’s not one of the big ones” that people think about, Mehra said. But surgery or radiation for these cancers “impacts so much of a person’s life: speaking, eating, drinking, cosmetic appearance,” Mehra said. “Head and neck cancer is typically thought of as a disease of people who smoke a lot and drink a lot,” Mehra said. “Not that everybody who has it has bad habits, but that is generally how it [...]

2022-05-23T11:16:01-07:00May, 2022|Oral Cancer News|

CDC Committee Recommends Boys Receive HPV Vaccine

Source: CNN.com A federal government advisory committee voted Tuesday to recommend that boys and young men, from ages 11 to 21, be vaccinated against the human papilloma virus, commonly referred to as HPV. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices says the vaccine series can be started as early as age 9. Twelve members of the committee voted in favor of a recommendation that 11- and 12-year-old boys be vaccinated; one member abstained. A separate vote involving males age 13 to 21 was split. Eight voted for it; five voted against, and one abstained. The same recommendation said males age 22 through 26 may be vaccinated. HPV is the No. 1 sexually transmitted disease in the United States. At least 50% of sexually active people will get it at some point in their lives. Study: Males should get HPV vaccine too The HPV votes took place as part of the advisory committee's meeting in Atlanta, Georgia. The HPV vaccine is already recommended for females between the ages of 9 and 26 to reduce the risk of cervical cancer. The CDC recommends girls get the vaccine at age 11 or 12. The FDA approved the first HPV vaccine, Gardasil, back in 2006. The second vaccine, Cervarix, was approved in 2009. The vaccine is given in three doses. Gardasil also protects against most genital warts and has been shown to protect against anal, vaginal and vulvar cancers, all of which are associated with HPV, according to the [...]

HPV Vaccine- Should it be Available for Boys?

Source: Dr.Bicuspid.com July 14, 2011 -- With the alarming rise in the rate of oropharyngeal cancer among men being linked to the human papillomavirus (HPV), the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is considering whether to also recommend the HPV vaccine for boys. Two vaccines (Cervarix and Gardasil) are currently available to protect females against the HPV types that cause most cervical cancers. The CDC currently recommends both for 11- and 12-year-old girls and for females 13 through 26 years old who did not get the three recommended doses when they were younger. The number of HPV-related oral cancers cases among men in the U.S. is increasing so quickly they could surpass the number of cases of cervical cancers in women by 2020, according to research presented last month at the American Society of Clinical Oncology annual meeting in Chicago. Between 1984 and 1989, only 16% of oropharyngeal cancers were linked to HPV. But by 2000-2004, HPV was related to 75% of oropharyngeal cancers, according to the National Cancer Institute (NCI). In 2010, the institute estimated that there were 12,660 cases of oropharyngeal cancer, resulting in 2,410 deaths. About half of those cases were among males and at least 75% were caused by HPV, according to NCI researchers. Several studies and oral cancer specialists have attributed the sharp rise in HPV-positive oropharyngeal cancers to an increasing prevalence of oral sex among young people. For the past few years, the CDC's Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) has been [...]

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