Gardasil – Oral Cancer News

Cancer experts warn about wave of HPV-related cancers in adults

Source: www.eurekalert.org Author: Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center Experts are concerned about rapidly rising rates of HPV-related throat and mouth cancers, noting that if this trend continues they could quickly be among the most common forms of cancer in adults between ages 45 and 65. Recent estimates suggest that middle throat cancer (known medically as oropharyngeal cancer) may become one of the top three cancers among middle-aged men in the United States by 2045, and the most common form of cancer among elderly men in the next 10 years. According to Matthew Old, MD, a head and neck surgeon at The Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center – Arthur G. James Cancer Hospital and Richard J. Solove Research Institute (OSUCCC – James), this rise of middle throat cancers in this age group is due to the direct impact of human papillomavirus (HPV) infection before modern vaccines were introduced in 2006. HPV is a large group of viruses spread through skin-to-skin and oral contact that occurs during sexual activity. The virus spreads easily, and an estimated 98% of the population has been exposed to it. HPV can remain dormant for decades. High-risk strains of the virus have long been linked to increased risk of cervical cancer; however, data from the past decade shows high-risk HPV is also strongly linked to cancers of the head and neck (mouth, base of tongue and throat). In 2006, Gardasil introduced an HPV vaccine, which is administered in youth between the ages of 9 and [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2023-06-15T05:38:03-07:00June, 2023|Oral Cancer News|

Most men benefit from initial and catch-up cancer prevention vaccination

Source: www.precisionvaccinations.com Author: Don Ward Hackett The Lancet Infectious Disease published the results from an extensive cancer prevention phase 3 study on November 12, 2021, supporting quadrivalent HPV vaccination in men, including catch-up vaccinations. The Gardasil quadrivalent human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine was shown to prevent infections and lesions related to HPV6, 11, 16, and 18 in men aged 16–26 years. The researchers assessed the incidences of external genital warts related to HPV6 or 11 and external genital lesions and anal dysplasia associated with HPV6, 11, 16, or 18, over ten years of follow-up. The 3-year Base Study was an international, double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled trial done at 71 sites in 18 countries. The Vaccination Period for the Base Study encompassed Day 1 through Month 7, during which time participants received qHPV vaccination at Day 1, Month 2, and Month 6. Follow-up for the Base Study encompassed Month 7 through Month 36. And the 7-year, open-label, long-term follow-up extension study was done at 46 centers in 16 countries. Between August 2010 and April 2017, 1,803 participants were enrolled in the long-term follow-up study, of whom 936 (827 heterosexual men and 109 MSM) were included in the early vaccination group and 867 (739 heterosexual men and 128 MSM) were included in the catch-up vaccination group. In early vaccine group participants during long-term follow-up compared with the placebo group in the Base Study, the incidence per 10 000 person-years of external genital warts related to HPV6 or 11 was 0·0 (95% CI 0·0–8·7) versus 137·3 [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2021-11-16T08:57:09-07:00November, 2021|Oral Cancer News|

FDA approves Gardasil 9, the HPV vaccine, to prevent head-and-neck cancer

For the past decade, evidence has suggested that Gardasil, the HPV vaccine, could stem an epidemic of throat cancer. But it has also never received approval from the Food and Drug Administration for that use — and it was unclear if it ever would. On Friday, the agency granted that approval, clearing the latest version of the vaccine, Gardasil 9, to prevent a cancer that affects 13,500 Americans annually. The decision was announced by Gardasil’s maker, Merck. The decision doesn’t change recommendations about who should get the vaccine, which is already recommended for females and males ages 9 through 45 to prevent cervical, vulvar, vaginal, and anal cancer as well as genital warts. But cancers of the head and neck — mainly those of the tonsils and throat — have been left off the list. It’s a striking omission, because head and neck cancer, mostly cancer of the throat, is the most common malignancy caused by HPV, the human papilloma virus, in the U.S. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, there are 35,000 cases of HPV-related cancer in the U.S. annually. On top of the 13,500 cases in the throat, 10,900 are cases of cervical cancer. “That’s excellent news,” said Stewart Lyman, a pharmaceutical consultant whose doctors discovered a tumor in his throat in 2016. It was removed surgically, and was caused by HPV. “To have this extended to head and neck cancer is really very helpful for helping to inform the public that this serious disease, which [...]

Charlotte Parker2020-06-15T09:41:02-07:00June, 2020|Oral Cancer News|

FDA approves Gardasil 9, the HPV vaccine, to prevent head-and-neck cancer

Source: www.statnews.com Author: Matthew Herper For the past decade, evidence has suggested that Gardasil, the HPV vaccine, could stem an epidemic of throat cancer. But it has also never received approval from the Food and Drug Administration for that use — and it was unclear if it ever would. Charles Rex Arbogast/AP On Friday, the agency granted that approval, clearing the latest version of the vaccine, Gardasil 9, to prevent a cancer that affects 13,500 Americans annually. The decision was announced by Gardasil’s maker, Merck. The decision doesn’t change recommendations about who should get the vaccine, which is already recommended for females and males ages 9 through 45 to prevent cervical, vulvar, vaginal, and anal cancer as well as genital warts. But cancers of the head and neck — mainly those of the tonsils and throat — have been left off the list. It’s a striking omission, because head and neck cancer, mostly cancer of the throat, is the most common malignancy caused by HPV, the human papilloma virus, in the U.S. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, there are 35,000 cases of HPV-related cancer in the U.S. annually. On top of the 13,500 cases in the throat, 10,900 are cases of cervical cancer. “That’s excellent news,” said Stewart Lyman, a pharmaceutical consultant whose doctors discovered a tumor in his throat in 2016. It was removed surgically, and was caused by HPV. “To have this extended to head and neck cancer is really very helpful [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2020-06-13T05:42:56-07:00June, 2020|Oral Cancer News|

How to encourage vaccination against HPV cancers? Drexel study suggests taking a cue from anti-vaxxers

Source: www.inquirer.com Author: Marie McCullough To persuade more people to get the cancer-preventing HPV vaccination, public health groups should emulate a tactic of the anti-vaccine movement, concludes a Drexel University study of Instagram posts. The researchers aren’t suggesting that vaccine proponents spread misinformation on social media, as vaccine foes do. But the study found that emotional, personal accounts with photos of youngsters — a staple of anti-vaccine content — get way more “likes” than the dispassionate, factual messages typical of pro-vaccine posts. “By studying what makes these messages so effective, we can improve fact-based, pro-vaccination messaging,” said senior author Philip M. Massey, a community health researcher at Drexel. The study, which analyzed 360 Instagram posts from April to August of last year, was conducted before Facebook — the owner of Instagram — announced this spring that it would curb anti-vaccine messages. But such content still abounds, because Facebook’s crackdown is limited to recommendations and ads. Before the crackdown, a majority of Facebook ads spreading vaccine misinformation were funded by just two groups, one led by Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s World Mercury Project, according to a study published this month in the journal Vaccine. Another study, in JAMA Pediatrics in September, found that 13 years after Merck’s Gardasil vaccine was hailed as a revolution in cancer prevention, most Americans still don’t know that HPV (human papillomavirus) is a family of sexually transmitted germs that can cause oral and genital cancers, and most doctors still aren’t promoting the shots. The immunization is [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2019-11-27T06:30:20-07:00November, 2019|Oral Cancer News|

HPV vaccine expanded for people ages 27 to 45

Source: www.nytimes.com Authors: Denise Grady and Jan Hoffman About 14 million women and men become infected with the human papillomavirus each year in the United States, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. CreditCreditKeith Bedford/The Boston Globe, via Getty Images The HPV vaccine, which prevents cervical cancer and other malignancies, is now approved for men and women from 27 to 45-years-old, the Food and Drug Administration said on Friday. The vaccine is Gardasil 9, made by Merck, and had been previously approved for minors and people up to age 26. It works against the human papillomavirus, HPV, which can also cause genital warts and cancers of the vulva, anus, penis and parts of the throat. The virus has many strains. It is sexually transmitted, and most adults encounter at least one strain at some point in their lives. The vaccine protects against nine strains, including those most likely to cause cancers and genital warts. “Today’s approval represents an important opportunity to help prevent HPV-related diseases and cancers in a broader age range,” Dr. Peter Marks, director of the F.D.A.’s Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research, said in a statement. The approval was based on a study in women ages 27 to 45, showing that an earlier version of the vaccine was highly effective in preventing persistent HPV infection, genital warts, vulvar and vaginal precancers, cervical precancers and cervical cancers related to the virus types covered by the vaccine. The vaccine’s effectiveness in men ages 27 to [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2018-10-07T18:38:18-07:00October, 2018|Oral Cancer News|

The rise of HPV-related cancers in men

Source: www.tmc.edu Author: Alexandra Becker Scott Courville admired his full beard and round belly in the mirror: He was ready for the upcoming holiday season. It was November 2015 and Courville, who plays Santa Claus in Lafayette, Louisiana, was too excited about his favorite time of year to worry much about the pain developing in his jaw. By February, though, the ache had worsened and was accompanied by new symptoms: white spots on his right tonsil, difficulty swallowing and lumps in his throat. He finally made his way to a walk-in clinic where he was diagnosed with tonsillitis and prescribed antibiotics. “They sent me home and said, ‘In two weeks everything should clear up,’” Courville recalled. But his symptoms only worsened. Courville made an appointment with a local ear, nose and throat (ENT) specialist who also diagnosed Courville with tonsillitis. The doctor prescribed more antibiotics and steroids, but two weeks later there were no improvements. Courville was referred to a dentist—“In case they see something we don’t”—but that, too, was a dead end. Courville’s dentist insisted he return to his ENT, where he ultimately had a CT scan that revealed a mass in his throat. That was June 6, 2016. Two days later, Courville underwent a biopsy. When he awoke from the surgery, his doctor was standing over him. Courville always gets choked up retelling this part of his story. “The hardest part for me is always remembering when the doctor said, ‘I’m sorry, but you’ve got cancer.’” Courville was [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2018-06-06T12:31:29-07:00June, 2018|Oral Cancer News|

HPV is causing an oral cancer epidemic in men by outwitting natural defenses

Source: www.philly.com Author: Marie McCullough, staff writer Five years ago, when actor Michael Douglas candidly revealed that his throat cancer was linked to having oral sex, two things happened. He made headlines that mortified his family. And he helped publicize the fact that a pervasive, sexually transmitted virus called HPV was unleashing an epidemic of oral cancer among men. Since then, scientists have made headway in figuring out why HPV, the human papillomavirus, has this glaring gender bias. Men are four times more likely than women to be diagnosed with oral cancer, a hard-to-detect, hard-to-treat disease that has overtaken cervical cancer as the most common HPV-related malignancy in the United States. To be sure, changes in sexual norms over the last few generations have played a role in this alarming trend. But research increasingly shows the real problem is something men have practically no control over: their immune response. Compared with women, men are more likely to get infected with HPV — including “high-risk” cancer-causing strains. They also are less able to wipe out infection on their own, and more likely to get reinfected. The reasons are unclear. “There is good evidence that men acquire oral infections more readily than women, even if they have similar sex practices,” said Ashish A. Deshmukh, a University of Florida HPV researcher. “And more than the acquisition, it’s the persistence of the virus. The clearance rate is not that fast in men.” Michael Becker of Yardley has stepped up as the face of this [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2018-03-06T16:31:36-07:00March, 2018|Oral Cancer News|

Young men should be required to get the HPV vaccine. It would have saved me from cancer.

Source: www.thedailybeast.com Author: Michael Becker In December 2015, at the age of 47, I was diagnosed with Stage IV oral squamous cell carcinoma. More simply, I have advanced cancer of the head and neck. While initial treatment with grueling chemo-radiation appeared successful, the cancer returned one year later in both of my lungs. My prognosis shifted from potentially curable to terminal disease. The news was shocking and devastating—not just for me, but for my wife, two teenage daughters, and the rest of our family and friends. Suddenly, my life revolved around regular appointments for chemotherapy, radiation therapy, imaging procedures, and frequent checkups. I made seemingly endless, unscheduled hospital emergency room visits—including one trip to the intensive care unit—to address some of the more severe toxicities from treatment. All told, I suffered from more than a dozen side effects related to treatment and/or cancer progression. Some are temporary; others permanent. These include anxiety, depression, distorted sense of taste, clots forming in my blood vessels, dry mouth, weight loss, and many more. My cancer started with a human papillomavirus (HPV) infection, a virus that is preventable with vaccines available for adolescent girls since 2006 and boys starting in 2011. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved three vaccines to prevent HPV infection: Gardasil®, Gardasil® 9, and Cervarix®. These vaccines provide strong protection against new HPV infections for young women through age 26, and young men through age 21, but they are not effective at treating established HPV infections. It was too [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2017-12-01T12:06:13-07:00December, 2017|Oral Cancer News|

Biotech exec facing death urges: Get the vaccine that prevents his cancer

Source: www.philly.com Author: Michael D. Becker Like most people who pen a new book, Michael D. Becker is eager for publicity. But he has an unusual sense of urgency. A former oncology biotech CEO, Becker has neck cancer. He expects his 49th birthday in November to be his last, if he makes it. What also drives him to get his message out, however, is this: Children today can get a vaccine that prevents the kind of oropharyngeal cancer that is killing him. As he collides with his mortality, Becker wants to share his story and raise awareness about the vaccine, which protects against dangerous strains of human papillomavirus, or HPV, the extremely common, sexually transmitted virus that caused his disease. His book, A Walk With Purpose: Memoir of a Bioentrepreneur (available on Amazon.com), was produced and self-published in a creative sprint between December, when his cancer recurred just a year after initial diagnosis and treatment, and April. He also has a blog, My Cancer Journey, and has been conducting media interviews. “I had a lot of motivation to write the book quickly,” he said wryly at his home in Yardley. In the final pages, he urges parents “to talk to their doctor about the HPV vaccine,” which “simply didn’t exist when I was a teenager, or it could have prevented my cancer.” The leading vaccine brand, Gardasil, was hailed as a breakthrough when it was introduced in 2006. It is approved to prevent cervical cancer and less common genital malignancies, [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2017-07-06T09:33:47-07:00July, 2017|Oral Cancer News|