Dr. Bradley Monk, an associate professor of gynecologic oncology at UC Irvine has called for Gardasil, which the FDA recently approved for use only for females, to be given to males.
Although men do not suffer from the four strains of HPV the virus is meant to guard against, they can pass the virus on to their sexual partners, so it makes sense to vaccinate them as well, Monk said, adding that Gardasil would also protect men against genital worts.
"We need to move toward a paradigm where this is a universal vaccine," Monk said. “To have a vaccine that prevents cancer and not use it would be one of the greatest tragedies.”
HPV is known to be a cause of cervical cancer among women.
The FDA approved the vaccine in June for women age 9 to 26 years of age. The Adult Industry Medical Health Care Foundation (AIM), which carries the vaccine, elected to give the vaccines to all female performers in the industry.
Despite Monk’s call for universal use of the vaccine, FDA regulations limiting use to women have not changed.
According to Merck, Gardasil in clinical trials has been shown to be 100 percent effective in preventing HPV infection with strains 16 and 18, which together cause about 70 percent of cervical cancer cases, in women who do not already have the virus, and about 99 percent effective in preventing HPV strains 6 and 11, which together with strains 16 and 18 cause about 90 percent of genital wart cases.
Gardasil also protects against vaginal and vulvar cancers, two other gynecological cancers that are linked to HPV, according to a study presented in Atlanta at a meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology.