Results of a study of men who have sex with men revealed that vaccination with the human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine, which protects against HPV types 6, 11, 16, and 18, reduced the incidence of anal intraepithelial neoplasia, a lesion known to precede anal cancer.
The incidence of anal cancer has been growing by around 2% per year in the general U.S. population. Anal cancer is especially prevalent in men who have sex with men.
The researchers randomly assigned 602 men aged 16–26 to receive the HPV vaccine or a placebo. After 36 months of follow-up, men who received all three doses of the vaccine had 77.5% fewer cases of anal intraepithelial neoplasia related to HPV types 6, 11, 16 and 18. The risk of persistent anal infection with the same HPV types was reduced by 94.%. No serious vaccine-related side effects were reported.
Although the study was not long enough to measure the vaccine’s effect on anal cancer directly, these results suggest that the HPV vaccine may reduce the risk of anal cancers caused by HPV-16 and –18.
- Palefshy, J.M., Giuliano, A.R., Goldstone, S., Moreira, E.D., Arnada, C., Jessen, H., . . . Garner, E.I. (2011). HPV vaccine against anal HPV infection and anal intraepithelial neoplasia. New England Journal of Medicine, 365, 1576–1585. doi: 10.1056/NEJMoa1010971
Contributor Deborah McBride, RN, MSN, CPON®, is a staff nurse IV at the Kaiser Permanente Oakland Medical Center and an assistant professor at Samuel Merritt University in Oakland, CA. 
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