3. The vaccine may prevent throat cancer [PRO]
According to CDC estimates, there are over 2,370 new cases of throat cancer caused by HPV for women, and as high as 9,356 for men — in the United States alone! If this trend continues on its current course, HPV will lead to more throat cancers than cervical cancers as early as the year 2020. The study stating this was published in 2011 in the Journal of Clinical Oncology.
This increase in oral cancer caused by HPV is likely a result of the popularity of oral sex in teenagers who want to circumvent condom usage while still engaging in sexual acts. It serves as a lesson that just because intercourse isn’t penetrative, it can still lead to the transmission of disease. Nearly all of the throat cancers caused by HPV are done so by the HPV-16 strain, which is the strain targeted by the vaccine.