Everyone wants a cure for cancer while many are insisting that their kids skip on a vaccine to prevent some cancers completely.
Bottom line: HPV vaccines are both safe and effective and can prevent certain types of cancer. Keep in mind HPV is now also the leading cause of throat cancer.
A study of 10-year follow-up data showed no cases of high-grade intraepithelial neoplasia and few cases of HPV infection among almost 1,300 boys and girls who received the 9-valent HPV vaccine, according to results published in
Pediatrics.
A recently published study found that, for the first time in a decade, HPV vaccination
did not increase among U.S. teenagers in 2022. Other studies have indicated that emphasizing the vaccine’s ability to reduce the risk for cancer
could improve uptake.
...
Among girls, there were no cases of vaccine-targeted HPV-type high-grade disease, such as cervical, vulvar or vaginal cancers; external genital warts; and neoplasia of the cervix and vagina.
One case of low-grade cervical intraepithelial neoplasia that was detected in a participant at month 84 “was likely caused by HPV39 and/or HPV59 given the detection of persistent infection with these types, and is not considered a breakthrough case since these two types are not covered” by the 9-valent vaccine, the researchers wrote.
Among boys, the researchers found no cases of vaccine-targeted HPV-type disease, such as penile, perineal or perianal cancer or external genital warts.
They detected just 31 cases of HPV infection among the 1,272 participants over the 10-year period.
“The vaccine elicited robust antibody responses that persisted through 10 years after vaccination,”
Alain Luxembourg, MD, PhD, director of clinical research at Merck and a co-author of the study, said in a video abstract that accompanied the study online.
“More than 80% of toxicants were seropositive for each vaccine HPV type after 10 years. No cases of high-grade dysplasia or condyloma related to vaccine-targeted HPV types were observed during long-term follow up,” Luxembourg said. “These long-term data demonstrate that the nine-valent HPV vaccine generates durable antibody responses and effectiveness of at least 10 years.”