WHEN treating cervical cancer, don鈥檛 forget the boys.
Last week, reports told how a vaccine has been created that gives women 100 per cent protection against cervical cancers caused by the human papilloma virus (HPV). In a trial of more than 12,000 women, none given the vaccine became infected with two strains of the virus that cause 70 per cent of cervical cancer cases. Among women receiving a placebo, 21 developed malignancies associated with HPV.
But the vaccine鈥檚 makers, Sanofi Pasteur of France and Merck of the US, are also testing whether the vaccine can prevent young men becoming infected with HPV, in whom it can trigger genital warts. If so, it will both save male blushes and prevent men passing the virus to unvaccinated women, further cutting cases of cervical cancer.
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