Hpv

People who have lung cancer are more likely to have antibodies to a high-risk form of human papilloma virus, according to research presented Monday. Certain strains of human papilloma virus -- or HPV -- can cause cervical cancer. Researchers from France ran tests on 1,633 lung cancer patients and 2,729 healthy people and found a low rate of antibodies to high-risk HPV strains in the people without lung cancer -- less than 5% of participants. But the incidence was significantly higher in people with lung cancer, and those rates did not differ based on whether they were current smokers, former smokers or had never smoked.

To no one's surprise, a new clinical trial demonstrates that the human papilloma virus vaccine Gardasil is as good at protecting men as it is in protecting women, researchers reported Wednesday. A clinical trial in more than 4,000 boys and men demonstrated that the vaccine was more than 90% successful in preventing genital lesions caused by the four strains of HPV that the vaccine is active against, about the same level of protection demonstrated for women. The vaccine is currently approved in the United States for both males and females over the age of 9, but current recommendations call for administration only to females.

Gardasil , the vaccine that can prevent most cases of cervical cancer in girls, has won the FDA's blessing as a vaccine to prevent anal cancer, a rare but growing diagnosis in the United States. The drug agency's approval for Gardasil as an anal cancer vaccine opens the way for the medication's maker, Merck and Co. Inc., to market the vaccine to boys and young men between the ages of nine and 26. The FDA's decision could theoretically double the number of children and young adults urged to take the vaccine.

A Food and Drug Administration advisory committee Wednesday recommended that the agency extend approval of the human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine Gardasil for protection against anal cancer in males and females ages 9 through 26. The agency is not required to follow the recommendations of its advisory committees, but it generally does so. Anal cancer is relatively uncommon, striking about 5,000 Americans each year. About 90% of cases are thought to be caused by HPV. Gardasil protects against four of the most common strains of HPV. It is already licensed for protection against cervical cancer in women and against genital warts in both sexes ages 9 to 26. The new indication was based primarily on a clinical trial conducted among 4,065 men, 602 of them gay. Patients were randomly assigned to receive either three doses of the vaccine or a placebo.

The HPV vaccine was approved in 2006 as the first vaccine that can prevent a type of cancer. The vaccine protects against several common strains of human papilloma virus, which causes genital warts and can lead to cervical cancer. However, a new study show that a majority of young women who are eligible for the vaccine are either not getting it or are not following the three-shot protocol to be fully immunized. Researchers from the University of Maryland analyzed data from 9,658 teenagers and young women who were eligible for the HPV vaccination at the University of Maryland Medical Center between August 2006 and August 2010.

Immigrant girls and women will no longer have to be vaccinated against a sexually transmitted virus to get their green cards. Girls and women seeking to become legal permanent U.S. residents were required to get at least the first dose of the vaccine against human papillomavirus. Starting Dec. 14, the HPV vaccine will no longer be on the list of immunizations that immigrants must receive before getting their green card, the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Friday.

Re "1 in 4 teens got cervical cancer vaccine in '07," Feb. 18 Gardasil, the cervical cancer vaccine, has been widely accepted in California, but it is not 100% effective. Most cervical cancers are caused by a very common sexually transmitted infection -- the human papillomavirus (HPV). There are more than a dozen high-risk strains of HPV capable of causing cervical cancer, but the vaccine only protects against four strains of HPV, two of which are known to cause 70% of cervical cancer cases.

A large study of girls and young women who received the cervical cancer vaccine Gardasil has found only three confirmed cases of allergic reaction out of 380,000 shots. The study, published today in the British Medical Journal, was based on vaccination data from Australia, which has had a nationwide program to vaccinate females ages 12 to 26 in schools since April 2007.

Two French researchers who discovered the human AIDS virus and a German scientist who showed that human papilloma virus causes cervical cancer were awarded Monday the 2008 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine. The decision in effect ends the long-running dispute between France's Luc Monta- gnier and America's Robert Gallo, concluding that Monta- gnier and his colleague Francoise Barre-Sinoussi were the discoverers of the virus. More than 33 million people worldwide are HIV carriers.

Sandra Levy wants to do everything she can to safeguard the health of her 11-year-old daughter -- and that, of course, includes cancer prevention. She has had her child inoculated with one shot of Gardasil, the human papilloma virus vaccine that may prevent cervical cancer. But now, she says, she has serious reservations about going ahead with the next two injections of the course. "It's very confusing, and we really don't know if it's 100% safe," says Levy, of Long Beach.