HPV vaccine could protect men from cancer too

Embargoed until: Publicly released: 2026-04-10 01:00

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The 9-valent human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine - which protects people against diseases caused by nine different types of HPV - could be beneficial to men as well as women, say international researchers. The team looked at data from over 615,000 males vaccinated with the 9v-HPV vaccine and close to 2.3 million unvaccinated males, aged between 9 and 26 years, and say the people who were vaccinated had a lower risk of HPV-related cancers - which included head and neck, oesophageal, anal, and penile cancers - than their unjabbed peers. The researchers recommend we develop a vaccination plan that targets both sexes, as opposed to the current setup that only includes females.