{"entity":{"id":"idea-prev-hpv-male-catchup-oropharynx","kind":"idea","name":"Catch-up HPV vaccination for men to prevent throat cancer","aka":[],"tldr":"HPV throat cancer now exceeds cervical cancer in some countries and mostly affects men, who were not vaccinated. Vaccinating men up to 45 could reduce it.","summary":"HPV throat cancer now exceeds cervical cancer in some countries and mostly affects men who were never vaccinated, so this idea offers catch-up HPV vaccination to men up to age 45. HPV vaccination reduces oral HPV16 prevalence, oropharyngeal cancer incidence in men is rising, and the vaccine is safe in adults; the causal chain is strong despite the long latency. Oral HPV prevalence would serve as the intermediate endpoint with modelled cancer reduction. The test is prevalence surveys, modelling and cost-effectiveness analysis. Speculative in maturity, it addresses the bottleneck Prevention we already have is not deployed and links to HPV vaccination and head and neck cancer.","asOf":"2026-09-08","links":[{"label":"Bottleneck evidence (Prevention we already have is not deployed): Islami et al., Proportion of cancer attributable to modifiable risk factors (CA 2018)","url":"https://doi.org/10.3322/caac.21440"}],"tags":[],"related":[],"cancers":["head-and-neck"],"sections":["prevention"],"technologies":["hpv-vaccine"],"targets":[],"drugs":[],"companies":[],"institutions":[],"pathways":[],"terms":[],"trials":[],"people":[],"bottlenecks":["b-prevention-adoption"],"keyPapers":["paper-islami-ca-cancer-j-clin"],"journals":[],"dependsOn":[],"notes":[],"hypothesis":"Catch-up vaccination of men aged 27-45 reduces oral HPV16 prevalence by at least half in the vaccinated and oropharyngeal cancer incidence by at least 20% within 20 years.","rationale":"Long latency but a strong causal chain, and the vaccine is safe in adults.","test":"Prevalence surveys, modelling, and cost-effectiveness analysis.","maturity":"speculative","actor":"policy","cost":"medium","horizonYears":10},"route":"/ideas/idea-prev-hpv-male-catchup-oropharynx/","neighbours":{"cancer":[{"id":"head-and-neck","kind":"cancer","name":"Head and neck squamous cell carcinoma","route":"/cancers/head-and-neck/"},{"id":"hpv-positive-oropharyngeal-cancer","kind":"cancer","name":"HPV-positive oropharyngeal cancer","route":"/cancers/hpv-positive-oropharyngeal-cancer/"}],"section":[{"id":"prevention","kind":"section","name":"Prevention & Risk","route":"/fronts/prevention/"}],"technology":[{"id":"hpv-vaccine","kind":"technology","name":"HPV & HBV vaccination","route":"/technologies/hpv-vaccine/"}],"bottleneck":[{"id":"b-prevention-adoption","kind":"bottleneck","name":"Prevention we already have is not deployed","route":"/bottlenecks/b-prevention-adoption/"}],"paper":[{"id":"paper-hpv-vaccine-england-lancet-2021","kind":"paper","name":"England's HPV programme: cervical cancer down 87% in the first cohort vaccinated at 12-13","route":"/key-papers/paper-hpv-vaccine-england-lancet-2021/"},{"id":"paper-islami-ca-cancer-j-clin","kind":"paper","name":"Proportion and number of cancer cases and deaths attributable to potentially modifiable risk factors in the United States","route":"/key-papers/paper-islami-ca-cancer-j-clin/"}],"roadmap":[{"id":"prevention-roadmap","kind":"roadmap","name":"Cancer prevention roadmap: tobacco control and vaccines → biomarker-guided chemoprevention → interception in carriers","route":"/roadmaps/prevention-roadmap/"}]}}