TUESDAY, July 19, 2016 (HealthDay News) -- The American Cancer Society has endorsed the U.S. government's HPV vaccination recommendations, which include immunizing all preteens against the sexually transmitted human papilloma virus.
In a new report, the cancer society says 11- and 12-year-old girls as well as boys should be vaccinated to guard against cancers associated with HPV. This is in line with updated guidelines from the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
"HPV vaccination has the potential to prevent tens of thousands of cancers and hundreds of thousands of pre-cancers each year," said the lead author of the report, Debbie Saslow. She is the cancer society's director of cancer control intervention for HPV vaccination and women's cancers.
"It is critical that all stakeholders -- families, health care providers, and others -- make HPV vaccination a priority, so that prevention of the vast majority of cervical, vaginal, vulvar, anal, penile, and oropharyngeal cancers can become a reality," Saslow said in a cancer society news release.
Recent studies showing the HPV vaccine can protect both young men and young women from these diseases led the CDC's Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices to update its vaccine recommendations to include males.
Having reviewed the new research, the cancer society's scientists and advisors concurred with the CDC.
The report was published online July 19 in CA: A Cancer Journal for Clinicians.
Among the CDC's recommendations on HPV vaccination:
More information
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention provides more on the HPV vaccine.