hpv vaccine – Page 3 – Oral Cancer News

Where Do the Millions of Cancer Research Dollars Go Every Year?

Posted: Thursday, Feb. 7, 2013, at 5:18 PM ET By: Quora Contributor Source: Slate.com This question originally appeared on Quora. Answer by David Chan, MD, Oncologist : I'll be the first to admit that despite all the billions put into cancer research, the end results of preventing cancer and treating advanced cancer have been disappointing. Unlike reducing deaths from heart attacks and stroke, progress in reducing deaths from cancer has been disappointingly slow. Sure, we've had our breakthrough drugs like Gleevec, the targeted drug for chronic myelogenous leukemia, and Herceptin for a certain type of breast cancer. But for a lot of other cancers, the treatments aren't giving us bang for the buck. Spending $100,000 to $200,000 a year to extend life for an additional three to six months may be very important to those individuals with cancer, but are a very poor return on investment for society. It's not sustainable, and that's why a lot of national health care programs won't pay for drugs like Avastin, Sutent, Yervoy, and Provenge. Dr. Margaret Cuomo (sister of New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo) recently wrote about her perspective about this. On the amount spent on cancer research: "More than 40 years after the war on cancer was declared, we have spent billions fighting the good fight. The National Cancer Institute has spent some $90 billion on research and treatment during that time. Some 260 nonprofit organizations in the United States have dedicated themselves to cancer — more than the number established [...]

Charlotte Parker2013-02-08T13:35:57-07:00February, 2013|Oral Cancer News|

Attitudes Toward HPV Vaccination For Boys

Source: Medical News Today Date: 01 Feb 2013 A new Boston University School of Medicine (BUSM) study has found that low-income and minority parents/guardians were receptive toward vaccinating boys against Human Papilloma Virus (HPV). However, racial/ethnic differences emerged in attitudes regarding school-entry mandates. The findings appear online in the journal Clinical Pediatrics. Although low-income and minority men have higher rates of oral HPV infection and are more likely to suffer from HPV-related diseases including penile, anal and oral cancers, few studies have examined parental attitudes after the HPV vaccine was approved for males in 2009. This study aimed to provide an in-depth understanding of how low-income and minority parents view HPV vaccination for boys using open-ended interview questions. The analysis was based on the Health Belief Model which measures perceived severity, susceptibility, benefits and barriers. Researchers led by corresponding author, Rebecca Perkins, MD, MSc, assistant professor of obstetrics and gynecology at BUSM, interviewed 120 parents and legal guardians of boys age 11 to 17 who accompanied them for physician visits between December 2011-2012. All subjects were read a short educational paragraph explaining HPV and HPV vaccination prior to answering questions. Perceiving the severe consequences of being exposed to HPV, most parents/guardians saw more benefits than barriers to vaccinating boys against HPV. Researchers found the most prominent barrier to vaccination was lack of information about the long-term efficacy and safety of the vaccine, specifically for males. "This study indicates that most parents would accept HPV vaccination for their sons just [...]

Charlotte Parker2013-02-04T11:56:10-07:00February, 2013|Oral Cancer News|

High HPV Immunization Rates Achieved With PATH Initiative

Source: Medscape.com August 30, 2012 (Montreal, Quebec) — Exceptionally high immunization rates against human papillomavirus (HPV) have been achieved in target-aged girls in India, Peru, Uganda, and Vietnam as a result of a PATH initiative, researchers told delegates here at the Union for International Cancer Control World Cancer Congress 2012. Vivien Tsu, PhD, MPH, director of the HPV vaccines project at PATH, reported that a minimum of 80% — and in some countries well over 90% — of school-aged girls received at least 1 dose of the HPV vaccine in the 4 countries to which the initiative has been directed over the past several years. "The reason the program was successful in these countries, and likely many others, is that there is visible government endorsement and involvement in the program," Dr. Tsu explained. "For the most part, people trust that the government is trying to help them, so if the government is saying 'this is worth doing,' the community participates." As Dr. Tsu noted, cervical cancer — at least 70% of which is caused by HPV types 16 and 18 — is a major health issue for women in low- and middle-income countries, with a projected incidence in 2030 of more than 750,000 women. In North America and Europe, cytology has been extremely effective in detecting cervical cancer and, more important, precursor lesions. However, in low- and middle-income countries, "cytology has failed to have much of an impact," Dr. Tsu explained, because these countries lack the necessary resources to offer widespread [...]

Charlotte Parker2012-08-31T11:09:43-07:00August, 2012|Oral Cancer News|

HPV vaccine reduces infection, even in unvaccinated

Source: Therapeutics Daily The HPV vaccine not only has resulted in a decrease in human papillomavirus infection in immunized teens but also in teens who were not immunized. The study is believed to be the first to show a substantial decrease in HPV infection in a community setting as well as herd protection – a decrease in infection rates among unimmunized individuals that occurs when a critical mass of people in a community is immunized against a contagious disease. The Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center study will be published online July 9 in the eFirst pages of Pediatrics. "Infection with the types of HPV targeted by the vaccine decreased in vaccinated young women by 69 percent," says Jessica Kahn, MD, MPH, a physician in the division of Adolescent Medicine at Cincinnati Children's and lead author of the study. "Two of these HPV types, HPV-16 and HPV-18, cause about 70 percent of cervical cancer. Thus, the results are promising in that they suggest that vaccine introduction could substantially reduce rates of cervical cancer in this community in the future." The first HPV vaccine was licensed for use in the United States in June 2006. The U.S. Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices has recommended vaccination of girls and women between the ages of 11 and 26 to reduce rates of HPV infection, which ultimately can lead to cervical cancer. In 2006 and 2007, Dr. Kahn and colleagues at Cincinnati Children's recruited 368 young women between the ages of 13 and 16 from [...]

Charlotte Parker2012-07-10T09:33:35-07:00July, 2012|Oral Cancer News|

HPV Vaccine May Prevent Recurrence of Precancerous Conditions

Source: abcnews.com The human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine has been touted as a way to prevent cervical cancer and genital warts, but a new study suggests the vaccine may also prevent women diagnosed with precancers from developing recurrences. Researchers randomly assigned more than 1,350 women diagnosed with genital warts or certain precancerous conditions to receive either three injections of the HPV vaccine or a placebo. The women were followed for about four years. Women who received the vaccine had 46.2 percent lower risk of developing another HPV-related disease after treatment for their genital warts or their precancerous condition. Typically, women treated for these types of conditions are at risk for subsequent disease later, but the study offers evidence that "vaccination offered substantial benefit" in terms of lowering that risk, wrote the international team of authors, led by Elmar Joura, an associate professor at the University of Vienna in Austria. Experts not involved with the research told ABC News that the research is significant because it suggests for the first time that the HPV vaccine may offer benefits beyond prevention. "We always thought about the vaccine from the prevention, and this suggests it can lower the risk of developing a second episode of disease," said Dr. Anna Giuliano, director of the Center for Infection Research in Cancer at the Moffitt Cancer Center in Tampa. Giuliano cited another study published online in January that found the HPV vaccine reduces the recurrence of abnormal anal cell growths in men. "We're now seeing a pattern [...]

Charlotte Parker2012-04-17T10:16:45-07:00April, 2012|Oral Cancer News|

HPV Vaccine Reduces All Subtypes of HPV Disease

Source: Medscape.com Human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccination substantially reduced the risk for subsequent HPV disease in women who already had 1 bout of HPV-related disease, according to a study published online today in BMJ. "These are, to our knowledge, the first results in vaccinated women who have undergone treatment for HPV-related disease," write the authors, headed by Elmar Joura, MD, from the Medical University of Vienna in Austria. The data come from a subgroup of women who participated in trials of the quadrivalent HPV vaccine Gardasil (Merck & Co). Women who had HPV infection at the time of vaccination and who developed cervical, vulvar, or vaginal HPV disease had a substantially reduced risk of developing subsequent HPV-related disease after the first definitive treatment. HPV vaccination substantially reduced the risk for subsequent HPV disease — not only that caused by the 4 viral strains in the quadrivalent vaccine (HPV subtypes 6, 11, 16, and 18), but also that caused by other strains of HPV-related disease. This study "reinforces much of what we already know about the protective properties of the quadrivalent vaccine, including cross-protection against nonvaccine HPV types and vaccine benefit despite HPV exposure," writes Jane Kim, assistant professor of health decision science at Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, Massachusetts, in an accompanying editorial. Subgroup of Women The study analyzed data collected from 2 large company-sponsored placebo-controlled trials of Gardasil, known as FUTURE I and FUTURE II. Together, they involved 17,622 women 15 to 26 years of age who were randomized to receive [...]

Charlotte Parker2012-04-02T09:21:38-07:00April, 2012|Oral Cancer News|

HPV Vaccine Not Linked To Autoimmune Disorders, Study

Source: MedicalNewsToday.com A two-year study of nearly 190,000 girls and women, finds that Gardasil, the human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine made by Merck & Co, does not trigger autoimmune disorders such as lupus, rheumatoid arthritis, type 1 diabetes and multiple sclerosis. The results are published in the Journal of Internal Medicine. Study lead author Dr Chun Chao, a research scientist at the Kaiser Permanente Department of Research & Evaluation in Pasadena, California, said in a statement released on Friday, that: "This kind of safety information may help parents with vaccination decisions." ""These findings offer some assurance that among a large and generalizable female population, no safety signal for autoimmune conditions was found following HPV4 vaccination in routine clinical use," said Chao. Gardasil is a "quadrivalent" vaccine because it helps protect against 4 types of HPV. In girls and young women age 9 to 26, it targets 2 types that cause about 75% of cervical cancers, and 2 other types that cause 90% of cases of genital warts. The vaccine, which is given as three injections over six months, also helps protect boys and men age 9 to 26 against 90% of cases of genital warts. Genital warts is the most common sexually transmitted infection in the US, where it infects about 6.2 million people every year. It can also lead to cervical cancer in women. Gardasil received US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval in 2006. But a longstanding concern about links with autoimmune disorders has surrounded the vaccine, and many [...]

Charlotte Parker2012-02-03T10:40:12-07:00February, 2012|Oral Cancer News|

Success of HPV vaccination is now a matter of coverage

Source: The Lancet Oncology, Volume 13, Issue 1, Pages 10-12, January 2012 In a pair of articles in The Lancet Oncology, Lehtinen and colleagues and Wheeler and colleagues present 4-year end of study data from a trial of a prophylactic human papillomavirus (HPV)-16/-18 vaccine (Cervarix, GlaxoSmithKline) in young women aged 15-25 years. From a public-health perspective, these studies have several important contributions. The results assure us that among HPV-naive women in the 15—25 year age range, Cervarix has extremely high efficacy against HPV-16/-18-associated persistent infection, CIN2, and CIN3 or worse, the best ethical surrogate endpoint for prospective studies of invasive cervical cancer risk. Combined with other trials of Cervarix and Merck's quadrivalent Gardasil vaccine against HPV-16/-18/-6/-11,3 the evidence is strong for near 100% prophylactic vaccine efficacy in HPV-naive women at any age. Nonetheless, even with vaccine efficacy near 100% in HPV-naive women, the efficacy in the total vaccinated cohort decreased steeply with increasing age, showing an absence of therapeutic effect against already-acquired infections and associated lesions. We know from natural history studies that new HPV transmission (incidence, not prevalence) decreases with age in most cultures.4 Together, natural history data and results of trials for both vaccines suggest that vaccination before sexual debut, or around the time of menarche, will achieve the greatest reduction in cervical cancer rates. The 4-year trial data shows no decline in vaccine efficacy in HPV-naive women with time since vaccination.1 We know from other trials of the two vaccines that the duration of protection is several [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2012-01-05T16:54:57-07:00January, 2012|Oral Cancer News|

Data Published in the Lancet Oncology Support High Efficacy Previously Demonstrated By Cervarix

Source: Therapeutics Daily Author: Staff LONDON, Nov. 9, 2011-An analysis published today in The Lancet Oncology reinforces previous findings showing that GlaxoSmithKline’s Cervarix®, provided protection against advanced precancerous lesions (CIN3+), above that expected from a vaccine that protects against human papillomavirus (HPV) types 16 and 18. CIN3+ is the immediate step before invasive cervical cancer and data showing protection against this type of lesion are considered the most stringent evidence of potential cervical cancer prevention.1 Results from the largest efficacy trial of a cervical cancer vaccine to date (PATRICIA), show that Cervarix provided 93%† efficacy against CIN3+ irrespective of the HPV type associated with the CIN3+ lesion.1This pre-defined, exploratory analysis was conducted in women with no evidence of past or current HPV infection.‡ These women are thought to be representative of young girls prior to the onset of sexual activity – the primary target population for organised vaccination programmes. These findings have been incorporated into the European label for Cervarix, updated by the European Commission in September 2011. Additional data from the same end-of-study analysis have been published in a separate article in TheLancet Oncology. These data demonstrate that Cervarix provided 82%* efficacy against CIN3+, associated with a composite of 12 cancer-causing HPV types not included in the vaccine, in the same population as the analysis discussed above.2 This analysis excluded cases co-infected with HPV 16 and/or 18 and is therefore a conservative estimate of cross-protective efficacy. Non-vaccine HPV types, including the 12 studied in this analysis, together account for approximately 30% of cervical cancers globally.3 The authors [...]

Charlotte Parker2011-11-16T12:04:02-07:00November, 2011|Oral Cancer News|

HPV Vaccine Recommended for Boys aged 11 to 12 Years

Source: HemOncToday.com The CDC's Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices today approved routine recommendation in favor of administering the quadrivalent HPV vaccine for boys aged 11 to 12 years. Committee members decided that the vaccine (Gardasil, Merck) was safe, efficacious and cost-effective enough to warrant routine usage in this population. The recommendation issued in 2009 was permissive, meaning providers could give the vaccine to boys, but it was not routinely administered. This change would put the HPV vaccine into the regular vaccination schedule. The three-vaccination series can start as early as age 9 years. "The committee recommended that routine vaccination of males aged 11 or 12 years with three doses of quadrivalent vaccine be given to prevent HPV infection and HPV-related disease," Anne Schuchat, MD, director of the CDC's National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, said in a phone call with reporters. "Boys and young men 13 to 21 years of age who have not already received the vaccine should be vaccinated." Anne Schuchat, MD Insurance companies typically cover HPV vaccine in boys, but that is not necessarily the case for a permissive recommendation, according to Schuchat, who said a routine recommendation for a vaccine usually translates into coverage without co-pays. The committee voted 8-5 with one abstention in favor of recommending vaccination for young men up to age 21 years with permissive recommendation for men aged 22 to 26 years. The committee considered recommending vaccination up to age 26 years, which would have harmonized recommendations for men and women, [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2011-10-26T10:31:59-07:00October, 2011|Oral Cancer News|