9-Valent HPV Vaccine Helps Prevent 80 Percent Of Cervical Cancers

A new HPV vaccine may prevent 80 percent of cervical cancers, according to recent findings published in the JNCI Journal of the National Cancer Institute.

The new 9-valent HPV vaccine includes a 13 percent increase against HPV-related cancers in comparison to others on the market, including Gardasil and Cervarix, which protects against HPV types 16 and 18. The new HPV vaccine includes seven cancer causing HPV-types with the potential to protect nearly 19,000 other cancers diagnosed, including anal, oropharyngeal and penile cancers.

The National Cancer Institute notes that HPV is one of the most common sexually transmitted infections in the United States, with a virus that causes nearly all forms of cervical cancer and five percent of all cancers.

"This is the first comprehensive study of its kind and shows the potential to not only reduce the global cancer burden, but also guide clinical decision-making with regard to childhood vaccinations," said Marc T. Goodman, PhD, MPH, senior author of the study and director of Cancer Prevention and Genetics at the Cedars-Sinai Samuel Oschin Comprehensive Cancer Institute, in a news release.

For the study, researchers looked at close to 3,000 HPV DNA tissue samples from seven population-based cancer registries.

They discovered that the new HPV vaccine had the potential to protect against an additional 8 percent of oropharyngeal cancers, including the base of the tongue and tonsils.