The new 9-valent human papillomavirus vaccine, can potentially prevent 80 percent of cervical cancers in the United States if given to all 11- or 12-year-old children before they are exposed to the virus, according to a seven-center study published in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute. 

In addition to protecting against 80 percent of cervical cancers, the new 9-Valent human papillomavirus vaccine, which includes seven cancer causing HPV-types - 16,18,31,33,45,52 and 58 - has the potential to protect against nearly 19,000 other cancers diagnosed in the United States, including anal, oropharyngeal and penile cancers.

This is a 13 percent increase in protection against HPV-related cancers in comparison to the first vaccines on the market, Gardasil and Cervarix, which protected against HPV types 16 and 18.

"This is the first comprehensive study of its kind and shows the potential to not only reduce the global cancer burden, but also guide clinical decision-making with regard to childhood vaccinations," said Marc T. Goodman, PhD, MPH, senior author of the study and director of Cancer Prevention and Genetics at the Cedars-Sinai Samuel Oschin Comprehensive Cancer Institute.

The study found the 9-Valent vaccine, under the trademark of Gardasil-9, also has the potential to protect against an additional 8 percent of oropharyngeal cancers, which include the base of the tongue and tonsils. This disease is the second-most-common HPV-associated cancer.

"We found that 70 percent of patient DNA tissue samples with cancer of the oropharynx harbored HPV," added Goodman. "This is a much higher percentage of HPV than observed in other studies, likely because of changes in sexual behaviors, such as increased oral-genital contact."

The 9-Valent vaccine was also found to potentially increase protection from other HPV-related cancers including those of the vulva, from 71 to 92 percent; vagina, from 73 percent to 98 percent; the penis, 76 percent to 90 percent; and the anus, 87 percent to 96 percent.

To compile these data, researchers examined 2,670 HPV DNA tissue samples from seven population-based cancer registries.

Study authors intend to perform additional research in the future to follow up on their estimate of how well the current vaccines protect against HPV-associated cancers.

Citation: Journal of the National Cancer Institute: 2015 May: US Assessment of HPV Types in Cancers: Implications for Current and 9-Valent HPV Vaccines. Additional authors include first author Mona Saraiya, MD, MPH, from the Centers of Disease Control, Elizabeth R. Unger, Trevor D. Thompson, Charles F. Lynch, Brenda Y. Hernandez, Christopher W. Lyu, Martin Steinau, Meg Watson, Edward J. Wilkinson, Claudia Hopenhayn, Glenn Copeland, Wendy Cozen, Edward S. Peters, Youjie Huang, Maria Sebum Saber and Sean Altekruse. The work was supported by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention via in-kind funds, intramural funds to CDC human papillomavirus (HPV) lab, and contract (#200- 2002-00573, Task Order 0018). The support for coordination of genotyping data and genotyping was largely supported by CDC intramural funds via a contract. The collection of routine cancer registry data from California was supported by the California Department of Health Services as part of the statewide cancer reporting program mandated by California Health and Safety Code Section 103885; by the National Cancer Institute, National Institutes of Health, Department of Health and Human Services under Contract N01-PC-2010-00035, and cooperative agreement number 1U58DP000807-3. The support of the repositories and staff came from the SEER Program, National Institutes of Health, Department of Health and Human Services, under Contracts N01-PC-35139 (Los Angeles), N01-PC-35143 (Iowa), and N01-PC-35137 (Hawaii).