UNC Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center joins 68 other cancer centers across the country in endorsing the HPV vaccine for cancer prevention.

“HPV vaccine is a cancer prevention vaccine that is seriously underused right now,” said associate professor Noel Brewer. “This is a very straightforward, safe, effective way to prevent cancer and we feel we should be using it. Doctors and other people who take care of cancer patients are mystified as to why we wouldn’t be using this vaccine more widely.”

In order to get the full protection of the vaccine, a patient must get three different doses. In North Carolina, 70 percent of girls get the first dose, but only 50 percent have all three. When it comes to boys, that number drops to just 20 percent.

“When HPV vaccine was first developed and licensed in the United States, they decided to focus on adolescent girls because that’s where the science was,” Brewer said. “They then realized it was important to protect boys as well because the vaccine could prevent cancers in boys including anal, oral and throat cancer.”

The vaccine was originally intended to stop the spread of human papillomavirus, which is a group of 200 viruses, some of which can be spread though sexual contact. Brewer said physicians’ discomfort of talking about sex with parents has caused the rate of vaccination to go down.

“One of the main challenges right now is that physicians are not bringing up HPV vaccines along with other adolescent vaccines,” he said. “Those missed opportunities account for most of the low rate of HPV vaccination.”

He encouraged parents to bring up the vaccine, even if their physician does not.

“It’s a very effective vaccine,” Brewer said. “It does prevent cancer as well as some other things and it’s important that parents get the information they need to protect their children’s health.”

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