by
Brendon Nafziger, DOTmed News Associate Editor | April 01, 2010
Part of the concern is that the shots are expensive, some costing upwards of $400, and the health benefits of inoculating boys against what are quite rare cancers haven't been convincing. But if the link between HPV and head and neck cancers holds, this could change the economics slightly, as the cost for caring for oropharyngeal cancer survivors is high.
"[W]ith increasing numbers of younger patients surviving, the morbidity from treatment for individuals and the health care burden to the NHS [UK's National Health Service] will be significant. Perhaps vaccination for boys should be re-evaluated," argued Elizbeth Junor, an oncologist with the Edinburgh Cancer Centre in Scotland, in a letter accompanying the article.
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In a separate letter, Guy Rees, a consultant head and neck surgeon at the Royal Adelaide Hospital in Australia, agreed.
"If we progress to more than 90 percent of oropharyngeal cancers being associated with HPV, as the Stockholm group has already seen, and factor in the rising incidence in a younger population, it is quite likely that we will get closer to whatever figure politicians have in mind when valuing a human life," he wrote.
HPV: better prognosis?
Weirdly, people afflicted with HPV-related oropharyngeal cancers have higher survival rates than those with non-HPV-related cancers. Doctors don't know why, but they suspect that the HPV infection might elevate the infected person's immune response, giving them a better chance at beating the cancer, or make them more sensitive to radiation therapy.
Developing HPV-related head and neck cancers is linked to risky sexual habits, especially multiple oral sex partners. Patients with four or more lifetime oral partners were at slightly elevated risk, according to the study.
Rees, the head and neck surgeon, believes this should inform sex education to the young.
"[P]rimary health carers and medical educationalists should be aware that orogenital sex has a significant health impact," he wrote.
It should be noted that one of the paper's authors runs an institute that does work for GlaxoSmithKline, a maker of HPV vaccines. Another is running a trial with HPV-related cancers using a bacteria-based anti-tumor vaccine from Advaxis.
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