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What about the boys?

I had the opportunity to personally ask Professor Margaret Stanley (Professor of Epithelial Biology, Department of Pathology, University of Cambridge), an originator of the human papillomavirus vaccine and keynote speaker at the WONCA meeting in Singapore in July 2007, about vaccination of boys.

She assured me she would be happy to have her young grandson vaccinated. Testing is now under way on children 3 years and older, ages at which the vaccine would theoretically be effective.

I am not clear from Dr Leon’s helpful explanation in his commentary in the July issue of Canadian Family Physician¹ whether the cost benefit of protecting males from low rectal and anal cancer was factored into the calculations he describes.

Sexually assaulted males of any age and those choosing anal intercourse surely deserve protection from this easy-to-overlook cancer. The link to human papillomavirus infection seems fairly well established,² and condoms, as we all should know, do not protect against this highly contagious family of viruses.

References

1. Leon R. Ladies first. Should boys be vaccinated against HPV? Can Fam Physician 2008;54:967–8 (Eng), 972–3 (Fr).[Free Full Text]
2. Frisch M, Glimelius B, van den Brule AJC, Wohlfahrt J, Meijer CJLM, Walboomers JMM, et al. Sexually transmitted infection as a cause of anal cancer. N Engl J Med 1997;337(19):1350–8. Available from: http://content.nejm.org/cgi/content/abstract/337/19/1350. Accessed 2008 Aug 9.[Abstract/Free Full Text]

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