A recent study, including more than 5 million men and women in the United States, found that the human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine could prevent thousands of cases of head and neck cancer in men.
Infection with HPV, which is spread through skin contact, has been shown to increase the risk of many types of cancer, including cervical, oral, anal, and penile as well as female cancers.
In the study, 949,000 participants were given the vaccine between 2006 and 2008.
It was found that the incidence rates of all types of cancer associated with the human papillomavirus in men decreased from 7.5 to 3.4 cases per 100,000 men.
The research team from Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia explained that obtaining the vaccine reduced the incidence of head and neck cancer from 6.3 cases to 2.8 cases per 100,000 men.
The odds of developing cervical cancer among women also decreased from 10.4 to 7.4 cases per 100,000, according to results presented at the annual conference of the American Society of Clinical Oncology in Chicago.
Dr Lawrence Young, a molecular oncologist at the University of Warwick, described the data as "very encouraging".
Dr. Glenn Hanna, of the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston, said: "HPV vaccination is a way to prevent cancer."
It is highlighting its crucial role in cancer prevention.
ReplyDelete