There is a cancer vaccine and we should use it

Nearly a decade ago, many Americans first learned of a vaccine to prevent infection from the human papillomavirus (HPV). It’s a virus doctors now link to more than 30,000 new cancer cases in the U.S. each year, and for those of us who have devoted our lives to defeating the illness, such a vaccine has seemed an elusive miracle.

The vaccine works best in young people, giving their bodies years to develop immunity before they are exposed to the virus. And yet, too few are getting the vaccine. One reason is that in the past everyone needed to have three shots over six months for complete protection, and not everyone received all doses. Another reason is the vaccine has become misunderstood and politicized, keeping many from even beginning the regimen.

Today, those of us at the U.S. National Cancer Institute (NCI)-designated Cancer Centers — 69 world-leading research and treatment facilities distributed across the country — are making an unequivocal statement that we hope will counter this trend and save lives. Following our call for wide adoption of the HPV vaccine last year, we are calling on Americans to universally endorse the vaccine and follow the CDC’s new recommendation of a 2-dose vaccine regimen for younger adolescents. Cancer can be defeated, but we must use every weapon in our arsenal to do it. 

Preventable cancers remain common

{mosads}There are more than 100 forms of cancer known to medicine, and few are preventable. Of those that are, perhaps the best understood is lung cancer. Smoking causes 80 percent to 90 percent of lung cancers, killing more than 150,000 Americans every year, as well as causing more than a dozen other cancers that kill thousands more.

Similarly, HPV is linked to thousands of deaths, and doctors, including my colleagues at The Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center – Arthur G. James Cancer Hospital and Richard J. Solove Research Institute, now recognize it as the leading cause of many cervical, anal, vaginal, vulvar, penile and oropharyngeal cancers — with more women likely to suffer from such cancers than men.

Studies are beginning to reveal how HPV damages the genes in our cells, triggering the mutations of cancer, but unlike many related mechanisms that spawn tumors, HPV can be fought. The virus has long been associated with sexually transmitted conditions, such as genital warts, that can be entirely benign. It’s only in recent years that researchers have proven that some of the virus strains are linked to cancer.

Despite the thousands of preventable deaths, vaccine rates remain low. According to the latest CDC HPV vaccination statistics, only 41.9 percent of American girls and 28.1 percent of American boys aged 13-17 received the full three rounds of HPV vaccine by the end of 2015. With the new two-dose approach, which works best with a younger cohort under age 15 years old, those rates should improve. However, getting to that level of protection will require a unified national effort.

What we can all do about HPV

One of the most powerful steps we can all take to prevent cancer in this country is to talk about the HPV vaccine. Physicians need to bring it up, parents need to ask questions, facts need to take precedence over fake news. It is not a conversation about sex, it’s a conversation about one of the few weapons we have to fight cancer.

Additionally, those of us at the nation’s NCI-designated cancer centers recommend the following:

1. We encourage all parents and guardians to have their sons and daughters complete a two-dose 9-valent HPV vaccine series before age 13, or complete a catch-up vaccine series as soon as possible in older children, including three doses in those older than 15. Parents and guardians should talk to their health care provider to learn more about the HPV vaccine and its benefits. 

2. Adolescents and young adults older than 14 should continue to complete the three-dose series, even though the new guidelines from the CDC recommend that children under age 15 should receive two doses of the 9-valent HPV vaccine at least six months apart.

3. We encourage young men and young women up to age 26, who were not vaccinated as preteens or teens, to complete a three-dose vaccine series to protect themselves against HPV. 

4. We encourage all health care providers to be advocates for cancer prevention by making strong recommendations for childhood HPV vaccination. We ask providers to join forces to educate parents, guardians and colleagues about the importance and benefits of HPV vaccination. 

Bringing an end to communicable cancer

If any of us could get a vaccine for breast cancer or colon cancer, no one would hesitate. Now we have just such a vaccine for some of the most terrifying cancers we know, and yet too few are getting vaccinated. As with any vaccine, without nearly universal use, its effect is limited.

From parents to pediatricians, the message must be clear: the HPV vaccine must become as common and universally adopted as standard shots for whooping cough, the measles or the flu. There is no question that the vaccine works, and there should be no question that children and young adults will be saved by it.

I am a cancer control researcher but I’m also a parent, and for my three boys, the HPV vaccine is the best tool I have to prevent them from getting some of the most devastating cancers I have seen. This is a responsibility that falls to the adults in this country – we cannot let our kids become our cancer patients.

Electra Paskett is associate director for population sciences and leader of the Cancer Control Research Program at The Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center —Arthur G. James Cancer Hospital and Richard J. Solove Research Institute.