In response to low national vaccination rates for the human papillomavirus (HPV), the UCSF Helen Diller Family Comprehensive Cancer Center has joined the other 68 NCI-designated cancer centers in issuing a statement urging for increased HPV vaccination for the prevention of cancer. These institutions collectively recognize insufficient vaccination as a public health threat and call upon the nations’ physicians, parents, and young adults to take advantage of this rare opportunity to prevent many types of cancer.
“This represents a concerted effort among the nation’s top cancer centers to promote a safe and effective cancer prevention strategy, and we are proud to participate,” said Alan Ashworth, PhD, FRS, President of the UCSF Helen Diller Family Comprehensive Cancer Center and Senior Vice President for Cancer Services of UCSF Health.
National Cancer Institute (NCI)-designated cancer centers joined in this effort in the spirit of President Barack Obama’s State of the Union call for a national “moonshot” to cure cancer, a collaborative effort led by Vice President Joe Biden.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), HPV infections are responsible for approximately 27,000 new cancer diagnoses each year in the U.S. Several vaccines are available that can prevent the majority of cervical, anal, oropharyngeal (middle throat), and other genital cancers.
Vaccination rates remain low across the U.S., with under 40 percent of girls and just over 21 percent of boys receiving the recommended three doses. Research shows there are a number of barriers to overcome to improve vaccination rates, including a lack of strong recommendations from physicians and parents not understanding that this vaccine protects against several types of cancer.
To discuss strategies for overcoming these barriers, experts from the NCI, CDC, American Cancer Society and more than half of the NCI-designated cancer centers met in a summit at MD Anderson Cancer Center last November. During this summit, cancer centers shared findings from 18 NCI-funded environmental scans, or detailed regional assessments, which sought to identify barriers to increasing immunization rates in pediatric settings across the country.
Loris Hwang, MD, Associate Professor of Pediatrics in the Division of Adolescent and Young Adult Medicine at UCSF, participated in the workgroup that drafted the national statement.
