Can HPV Vaccine Stop Throat Cancer?
Explosive Rise in HPV Throat Cancer; Panel Mulls Vaccinating Boys
Throat Cancer Tipping Scales Toward HPV Vaccination of Boys continued...
And HPV is to blame. Only a few decades ago, the major risk factors for throat cancer were smoking and alcohol. Not any more. In the five-year period of 1984-1989, only 16% of OP cancers were linked to HPV. By 2000-2004, HPV was behind 75% of OP cancers.
What are the risk factors? Not all are known, but HPV-related throat cancer risk goes up with increased oral sex and kissing, Kreimer said. Current tobacco use and HIV infection also are risks.
Fortunately, oral HPV infection appears to be much less common than genital HPV infection. Among healthy individuals infected with HPV, fewer than one in 20 has detectable HPV in the oral cavity.
But there are disturbing trends. Husbands of women with cervical cancer have a threefold higher risk of tonsil cancer. And people who have anal cancer have a fourfold to sixfold higher risk of tonsil cancer.
These findings are tipping the ACIP in favor of recommending routine HPV vaccination for boys.
"Most members of the [ACIP] HPV working group favor the strategy of routine vaccination of all males at the age at which they get the most benefit," Eileen Dunne, MD, MPH, a CDC researcher assisting the working group, said in a presentation to the full ACIP.
But the ACIP did not vote on the issue at the June meeting. Some members of the panel expressed frustration with the process.
"HPV cancers in males account for 7,000 cases a year," said ACIP member Mark H. Sawyer, MD, professor of pediatrics at the University of California, San Diego. "That is not a trivial number, and we are sitting around here wondering whether to immunize them. But it is not a trivial question."
The National Cancer Institute estimated that in 2010, there were 12,660 cases of OP cancer -- and 2,410 deaths. About half of those cases would have been male; at least three-fourths would have been caused by HPV.
The full ACIP likely will vote on the issue at its October meeting.