Long presented as a vaccine for adolescent girls,
HPV vaccine in men is undergoing a major turning point. A new international study shows that it could also protect boys and young men from several cancers affecting the mouth, throat and even the penis.
Published in the medical journal JAMA Oncologythis large cohort study sifted through the health records of more than three million young men. Researchers describe a marked drop in cancers linked to the HPV virus among those who received the most recent vaccine. Enough to reshuffle the cards.
HPV vaccine in men: a giant study observes a sharp drop in cancers
Between 2016 and 2024, the authors compared 615,155 boys and young men vaccinated with the 9-valent HPV vaccine to 2,290,623 unvaccinated, aged 9 to 26 years. After statistical matching, two strictly comparable groups of 510,260 participants each were followed for up to ten years, from a large American database.
Central result: the vaccinated have a risk of HPV-related cancers approximately 46% lower than that of the unvaccinated. In more concrete terms, the incidence goes from around 12.5 cases per 100,000 unvaccinated men to 7.8 per 100,000 among vaccinated people. This protection appears both among 9–14 year olds (-42%) and 15–26 year olds (-50%).
Cancers of the mouth, throat and penis: how HPV intervenes
Human papillomavirus, or HPV, is very common and is transmitted through skin-to-skin contact, particularly during vaginal, anal or oral sex. Certain so-called high-risk types can cause head and neck cancers, including mouth and throat cancersbut also the anus, the esophagus and the
penile cancer. Strains like HPV-16 are particularly implicated in throat cancers linked to oral sex.
Researchers point out that many people contract HPV during their lives, then spontaneously eliminate the virus. Only a small proportion develop a persistent infection which, over the years, can progress to cancer. They also note that, in young men, these cancers remain rare and that not all are due to HPV, which explains the need for monitoring over several decades.
A vaccine long seen as “for girls”, which could also protect boys
Until now, the strongest evidence for cancer prevention by the HPV vaccine has been in women, particularly for cervical cancer. Among men, much work was limited to measuring the reduction in infections, without being able to decide on the cancers themselves. This study is the first to directly compare, on a large scale, vaccinated and unvaccinated men on the occurrence of cancers of the head and neck, anus, esophagus and penis.
The authors believe that these results support the idea of ”sex-neutral” vaccination programs, where girls and boys would benefit from HPV vaccine. In several countries, such as the United Kingdom, which has been vaccinating boys aged 12–13 since 2019, this development has already begun. Researchers remain cautious: more perspective is needed, but the data suggest that the vaccine could play an important role in also reducing cancers in men.