HPV Vaccine May Help Prevent Throat Cancer

A new study suggests that HPV vaccinations will not only protect women from the human papillomavirus, but also from throat cancer.  

An increasing number of throat cancers have been seen throughout the years, according to researchers, that might have otherwise been prevented by the HPV vaccine.

"We found the women who had the HPV vaccine had much less infection than the women who hadn't," said lead researcher Dr. Rolando Herrero, at the International Agency for Research on Cancer in Lyon, France, via U.S. News and World Report. "In fact, there was a 90 percent reduction in the prevalence of HPV infection in the women who received the vaccine compared to the women who had not."

Previous studies have showed the upward trend of HPV-positive oral cancers from previous decades.

In fact, according to the Oral Cancer Foundation, nearly 42,000 Americans will be diagnosed with oral and throat cancer in 2013 and more than 8,000 will die from it.

The researchers randomly assigned more than 7,400 women aged 18 to 25 to either receive the HPV vaccine or a vaccine against hepatitis A.

Women in the HPV group were given Cervarix, one of the HPV options-the other being Gardasil.

After a four year period, the researchers found that the HPV vaccine was nearly 93 percent effective in preventing throat cancer. And only one woman who received the vaccine showed signs of an oral HPV infection, compared to the 15 in the hepatitis A vaccine group.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention currently recommends the vaccine for adolescent girls and boys starting at age 11.

More information regarding the study can be found online in the journal PLoS One.