HPV Linked to Penile Cancer

Tuesday, August 25th, 2009 at 11:59 pm

Just as HPV (human papillomavirus) is now known to be the primary cause of cervical cancer, Spanish medical researchers from the Catalan Institute of Oncology have recently said that this common sexually transmitted disease that typically manifests itself in the form of genital warts is likely to blame for as much as half of penile cancers.

Penile cancers are much more rare than HPV cervical cancers as they account for less than 1% of cancers in men in North America and Europe, but are as high as 10% of male cancers in parts of Asia and Africa. There are as many as 26,000 case of penile cancer reported yearly.

The Spanish researchers reviewed clinical study reports from between 1986 and 2008 which indicated that nearly 50% of penile cancer tumors with associated with HPV. Nearly all were directly linked to HPV strains 16 and 18, the same two types most often linked to cervical cancer.

Both of these strains are targeted by Merck’s Gardasil and Cervarix from GlaxoSmithKline via vaccinations currently widely used to immunize against HPV infection in young women.

The good new is that clinical trials were completed by Merck late last year which demonstrated the effectiveness of their Gardisil anti HPV vaccine at preventing the penile lesions in men that are caused by the virus. Hence, the findings of the researchers suggest that the already widely used anti HPV vaccines from women are very likely to be similarly effective in the fight against penile cancer in men