Gardasil Vaccine to prevent HPV+ SCC cancer recurrence
See the summary below of a study completed by the U of Alabama in 2010. Anyone here familiar with this? Has anyone discussed the ramifications of this study with their doctors, to assess the extent of its applicability to H&N SCC as opposed to Cervical SCC? The jury is still out on this one at Stanford, in part because they strongly disagree with the excessive costs imposed by the vaccine-makers. On the other hand, my renegade Sierra foothills GP/GYN believes it makes a valid point about the value of Gardasil in boosting the immune system's defenses against HPV+ cancers. I paid up front, he gave me the shot. Anyone else been there, done that?
Deb
Study Info:
The study shows that Gardasil reduces by approximately 40 percent the chances that more cancer or pre-cancerous changes will occur in the cervix, vagina and vulva up to 3.8 years after a female has surgery for one of those conditions.
Huh said the findings are important because they answer a question many women and their doctors have been asking -- does an HPV vaccine help treat virus-related changes in the body after women have surgery to treat similar changes?
"Based on this study, the data is compelling and suggests it does help to treat virus-related changes," Huh said. "Knowing that Gardasil also may offer postoperative protection from recurrent disease will be crucial in follow-up care and overall health planning for teens and women."
The vaccine is approved to fight the four HPV strains believed to cause 70 percent of cervical cancers and more than 90 percent of genital warts
The study involved 17,622 women ages 15 to 26 from two clinical trials, some who were vaccinated and some who were not. Hundreds of study participants had surgery to remove cancer or certain pre-cancerous changes of the cervix, vagina and vulva and to remove genital warts.
Huh said the results are encouraging because patients treated for HPV-related disease are known to be at higher risk for contracting the same disease post-operatively. Reducing the risk and need of a secondary procedure is an important step in improving women's care, he said.
Comments
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I agree!
It is definitely very interesting. I will have to ask my primary care provider what she thinks. i may have to get my self the shot!! I don't think it could hurt!!
Charles0 -
There were 2 articles posted
There were 2 articles posted somewhere around January 20th about oral cancer & the Gardasil vaccine. I posted both articles on my FB page & will copy what I quoted from the articles.
Anyone considering the Gardasil vaccine; please do your own research to make sure that you're not one of the ones that will have side effects. People with certain heart issues or current muscle/joint aches should not have it.
More men than women have oral cancer virus
My comments- Do research on Gardasil before vaccinating your teens. The vaccine is too new & there are no studies to show it even works. If anyone needs information on where to research Gardasil; message me. - About 7 percent of adults and teens in the United States are orally infected with the human papillomavirus, or HPV, a new study says. This represents about 14.9 million people.
More men are affected than women: About 10 percent of men ages 14 to 69 have an oral HPV infection, compared with 3.6 percent of women, the study showed.
The new findings were "reassuring," according to study researcher Dr. Maura Gillison, chair of cancer research at The Ohio State University , because they show that while oral infection with the virus is common, cancer cases as a result of these infections are rare. In other words, most infected people don't get cancer. The American Cancer Society estimates there will be about 40,000 new cases of cancer of the oral cavity and pharynx in 2012. .....More studies are needed to know whether the HPV vaccine effectively prevents oral HPV infections, the researchers said. Currently, the vaccine is recommended to prevent cervical cancer, anal cancer and genital warts.
Is Oral Sex to Blame for the Surge in Cancer of the Mouth and Throat?
My comments- Do research on Gardasil before vaccinating your teens. The vaccine is too new & there are no studies to show it even works. If anyone needs information on where to research Gardasil; message me. - Is Oral Sex to Blame for the Surge in Cancer of the Mouth and Throat? - Deeken also supports a primary prevention, by vaccination of young people against HPV. "Hopefully in decades ahead, teenagers who are getting vaccinated now will not be developing oropharyngeal cancer," he says. "But that will be hard to prove, and it will take a long time." "The assumption, when we noticed the trend eight or nine years ago, was that this was a sexually transmitted disease due to more oral sex," he says. "But at least at Georgetown, we have patients in their 80s with this kind of cancer," he notes. "That raises questions about the sexual habits of Americans who are older, or about HPV." - The latency period between initial HPV infection and cancer can last decades, confirms Dr. Maura L. Gillison, an oncologist and professor at Ohio State who has published seminal findings on HPV and cancer.0 -
I'm willing to give it a try...
Most people can fight off the HPV virus.
This tells me it is not resilient, so if the vaccine can invoke enough of an immune response to take care of the actual virus in my body and keep it in check, then maybe it will prevent it from progressing into recurrences. For how long is a good question.
The flipside is, will my body naturally respond less in the future and leave me more vulnerable because it will now be looking for this type of artificial stimulus when the first series wears off?0 -
All I can say is.................RogerRN43 said:I'm willing to give it a try...
Most people can fight off the HPV virus.
This tells me it is not resilient, so if the vaccine can invoke enough of an immune response to take care of the actual virus in my body and keep it in check, then maybe it will prevent it from progressing into recurrences. For how long is a good question.
The flipside is, will my body naturally respond less in the future and leave me more vulnerable because it will now be looking for this type of artificial stimulus when the first series wears off?
I'm glad I got my first dose last Friday. I felt like I was helping control, what this stupid disease has done to me!! Both HPV and cancer.
With all the research out there now why would anyone be against this vaccine is beyond me???
If you read the article from the other post, which I know you did, you would have to agree the research is very promising.
No, I don't think it will be weakening your immune reaction to future outbreaks. Besides our immune systems have proven that we have a hard time suppressing the virus already. The vaccine only has DNA fragments, it's not the live virus.
Charles0 -
Can you folks clarify?Irishgypsie said:All I can say is.................
I'm glad I got my first dose last Friday. I felt like I was helping control, what this stupid disease has done to me!! Both HPV and cancer.
With all the research out there now why would anyone be against this vaccine is beyond me???
If you read the article from the other post, which I know you did, you would have to agree the research is very promising.
No, I don't think it will be weakening your immune reaction to future outbreaks. Besides our immune systems have proven that we have a hard time suppressing the virus already. The vaccine only has DNA fragments, it's not the live virus.
Charles
Are you guys advocating getting the vaccine post treatment for "us" people who have gone through treatment for Head and neck cancer and does it matter if we were HPV positive or not? It's my understanding that two of your doctors have concurred that it is a good idea? I've had both my children vaccinated but never thought it would work once the horse had left the barn?0 -
Previously posted 4/2/2012.ratface said:Can you folks clarify?
Are you guys advocating getting the vaccine post treatment for "us" people who have gone through treatment for Head and neck cancer and does it matter if we were HPV positive or not? It's my understanding that two of your doctors have concurred that it is a good idea? I've had both my children vaccinated but never thought it would work once the horse had left the barn?
D Lewis!!!
If I remeber correctly D Lewis had recommened this a while back. I beleive she had said her Stanford docs recommeneded the vaccine to help beat the odds of reaccurence!!
This article was also posted on the OCF web-site.
Definitley something to consider, in our fight to help beat the odds.
http://oralcancernews.org/wp/hpv-vaccine-reduces-all-subtypes-of-hpv-disease/0 -
WTG Charles....
I agree with you, to me only Michele Bachmann reasoning or attitude would be against the benifits of Gardasil.
I haven't read up on the advantage or possible advantages of post cancer treatment of having Gardasil.
Definitely soemthing to consider, investigate and ask my MD's their opinions concerning.
HPV Vaccine Reduces All Subtypes of HPV Disease
JG0 -
Yes, get the vaccineratface said:Can you folks clarify?
Are you guys advocating getting the vaccine post treatment for "us" people who have gone through treatment for Head and neck cancer and does it matter if we were HPV positive or not? It's my understanding that two of your doctors have concurred that it is a good idea? I've had both my children vaccinated but never thought it would work once the horse had left the barn?
Unlike stronger viruses, the difference here is the horse can still be caught, meaning HPV is normally eradicated by most people. In contrast, Hepatitis for example cannot be naturally eradicated so there is no point attempting a Hep vaccine after the fact.
So if HPV is the cause of your oral cancer, in theory, getting the vaccine is like giving your immune system a kick, and maybe, just maybe your immune system will "kick back" and keep the HPV virus in check so that it doesn't produce new tumors.
As mentioned, that "kick back" is inherent in most people when they naturally acquire HPV. Exactly how it would cause a better "kick back" if we SCC patients couldn't fight off HPV the first time is unclear. However, the cervical cancer study is showing just that. It is reducing recurrences in those that get the vaccine.
What's to lose? Read the side effects. Cost if not covered.
What's to gain? Possibly reducing your HPV to non-detectable levels or making it dormant, and warding off a recurrence.
Now for people who have compromised immune systems, it likely won't work well because it's not the vaccine that's doing the work, it's the body's response to it.0 -
Nice ReadRogerRN43 said:Yes, get the vaccine
Unlike stronger viruses, the difference here is the horse can still be caught, meaning HPV is normally eradicated by most people. In contrast, Hepatitis for example cannot be naturally eradicated so there is no point attempting a Hep vaccine after the fact.
So if HPV is the cause of your oral cancer, in theory, getting the vaccine is like giving your immune system a kick, and maybe, just maybe your immune system will "kick back" and keep the HPV virus in check so that it doesn't produce new tumors.
As mentioned, that "kick back" is inherent in most people when they naturally acquire HPV. Exactly how it would cause a better "kick back" if we SCC patients couldn't fight off HPV the first time is unclear. However, the cervical cancer study is showing just that. It is reducing recurrences in those that get the vaccine.
What's to lose? Read the side effects. Cost if not covered.
What's to gain? Possibly reducing your HPV to non-detectable levels or making it dormant, and warding off a recurrence.
Now for people who have compromised immune systems, it likely won't work well because it's not the vaccine that's doing the work, it's the body's response to it.
Good read Roger....
Stay Heathy,
John0 -
Edit to my last post...
I incorrectly called it "the cervical cancer study". The women in the study actually did not have cancer.
I looked at the study more closely this morning, they had pre-cancerous dysplasia, genital warts, etc.
30-50% of dysplasia progress to cervical cancer. In those of us who have HPV related oral SCC, the propensity to develop cancer has been established.
The google ABC News link titles it, "Does HPV vaccine prevent cancer recurrence?" which I think is a bit of a stretch because the study subjects did not have cancer.
In other words, the scientific connections to have this vaccine benefit us oral HPV SCC survivors are a little more disjointed than I thought.
That said, when faced with mortal decisions, any % chance of benefit for me is better than 0% (not getting it).
You will have to decide what's best for you.0 -
Developing into cancer!RogerRN43 said:Edit to my last post...
I incorrectly called it "the cervical cancer study". The women in the study actually did not have cancer.
I looked at the study more closely this morning, they had pre-cancerous dysplasia, genital warts, etc.
30-50% of dysplasia progress to cervical cancer. In those of us who have HPV related oral SCC, the propensity to develop cancer has been established.
The google ABC News link titles it, "Does HPV vaccine prevent cancer recurrence?" which I think is a bit of a stretch because the study subjects did not have cancer.
In other words, the scientific connections to have this vaccine benefit us oral HPV SCC survivors are a little more disjointed than I thought.
That said, when faced with mortal decisions, any % chance of benefit for me is better than 0% (not getting it).
You will have to decide what's best for you.
From my understanding most cancer cells started out in the dysplasic phase to begin with; so if the vaccine can prevent a HPV reaccurence; then it will help prevent possible dysplasia, which can prevent cancer recurrence. My rational for getting the vaccine is to try and help prevent future HPV reaccurence!!0 -
same as last time this came up except...Skiffin16 said:WTG Charles....
I agree with you, to me only Michele Bachmann reasoning or attitude would be against the benifits of Gardasil.
I haven't read up on the advantage or possible advantages of post cancer treatment of having Gardasil.
Definitely soemthing to consider, investigate and ask my MD's their opinions concerning.
HPV Vaccine Reduces All Subtypes of HPV Disease
JG
We had both teenage girls vaccinated before and now have had the 14 yr old boy as well. He saw what his father went through and had no objection at all. As you may imagine, DrMary and I carefully read the actual results and there is NO significant downside to the vaccines. The reports of soreness in the arms at the vaccine site and such are to be expected from anything, even from the shots you get at the dentist: Needles are needles. The upside is significant enough that it far outweighs this.
As for the old man, he completely forgot to ask the ENT Dr yesterday about getting this as well and DrMary will be disappointed. However, he just had so many new shots for Hep A and B and for DPT and such for the most recent Africa trip, that it might be best to wait a few weeks anyway.
In fact, switching to the first person here, that was why I went in yesterday, because I was getting a bad knot in my throat that was making me retch. It turns out that the medicine I was taking for malaria while in Africa and since is known for causing this sort of thing. It is just magnified in someone such as I who has had throat cancer and operations and rads and chemo, etc. Two years ago I wouldn't have bothered to go to the doc and would have waited it out. Nowadays, I can't do that. It should go away as I stop it back here in the States.
However, I will ask my med onc when I see him next in a month or so. He is the "Dr Deeken" mentioned above and so I am certain he will have an informed opinion. Thanks for listening. Doug
btw, had a PET/CT a month or so ago and the rad onc saw me after and just said: "Nothing to see here. Come back in six." So the scan is clear and yesterday's scope by the ENT is clear. Life is great.0 -
Which begs the question?Irishgypsie said:Developing into cancer!
From my understanding most cancer cells started out in the dysplasic phase to begin with; so if the vaccine can prevent a HPV reaccurence; then it will help prevent possible dysplasia, which can prevent cancer recurrence. My rational for getting the vaccine is to try and help prevent future HPV reaccurence!!
Does cervical dysplasia cause head and neck cancer disproportionate in the male population because of oral sex. One of the main differences in HPV-HNSCC is that most are localized to the tonsil and base of the tongue. HPV-16 which is responsible for HPV head and neck cancer is cleared from the body the slowest. 1 out of 10 cannot clear the infection. 25% of head and neck cancer is attributed to HPV. Men have almost twice the rate of infection in their oral cavities than women which then begs the question of who is infecting who and how do you know? Therapeutic HPV-related vaccines are only in the experimental phases. There are currently two preventive vaccines available, Cervarix which protects against HPV 16 and 18 and is recommended up to 25 years of age. Gardasil protects against HPV 6, 11, 16, and 18. Are we then advocating that Vaccination is justified because it can simply do more good than harm after a diagnosis of HNC and is this the way post treatment is headed? And obviously then, how do we handle oral sex or does it really matter if HPV is in saliva??? This is a complicated disease!
Though not quoted directly most of the citings in my discussion came from an April article of SPOHNC magazine HPV and head and neck Cancer, by: SARA PAI, MD, PHD, FACS0 -
Well put me in the group study then!!!ratface said:Which begs the question?
Does cervical dysplasia cause head and neck cancer disproportionate in the male population because of oral sex. One of the main differences in HPV-HNSCC is that most are localized to the tonsil and base of the tongue. HPV-16 which is responsible for HPV head and neck cancer is cleared from the body the slowest. 1 out of 10 cannot clear the infection. 25% of head and neck cancer is attributed to HPV. Men have almost twice the rate of infection in their oral cavities than women which then begs the question of who is infecting who and how do you know? Therapeutic HPV-related vaccines are only in the experimental phases. There are currently two preventive vaccines available, Cervarix which protects against HPV 16 and 18 and is recommended up to 25 years of age. Gardasil protects against HPV 6, 11, 16, and 18. Are we then advocating that Vaccination is justified because it can simply do more good than harm after a diagnosis of HNC and is this the way post treatment is headed? And obviously then, how do we handle oral sex or does it really matter if HPV is in saliva??? This is a complicated disease!
Though not quoted directly most of the citings in my discussion came from an April article of SPOHNC magazine HPV and head and neck Cancer, by: SARA PAI, MD, PHD, FACS
Obviously, there are alot of unkowns here; most likely this could be just a waiste of vaccine. But if even for a chance it helps prevent a recurrecne I'm willing to be a ginny pig; so I guess D Lewis and myself our in own group study!!!
By the way Delinative, god rest his soul!!!!
His biopsy to the lung tested for HPV 18; his original tonsil ca was hpv16???? so having that said, if most of us have only been exposed to HPV 16; then the vaccine may help against potential future unkown exposure to the other hpv's??? Just a thought!!!!! 0 -
I had both my children vacinnatedIrishgypsie said:Well put me in the group study then!!!
Obviously, there are alot of unkowns here; most likely this could be just a waiste of vaccine. But if even for a chance it helps prevent a recurrecne I'm willing to be a ginny pig; so I guess D Lewis and myself our in own group study!!!
By the way Delinative, god rest his soul!!!! His biopsy to the lung tested for HPV 18; his original tonsil ca was hpv16???? so having that said, if most of us have only been exposed to HPV 16; then the vaccine may help against potential future unkown exposure to the other hpv's??? Just a thought!!!!!
But I'm thinking that it would be prudent to have myself and spouse vacinated provided I can find a willing doctor. Did you encounter much resistance from Docs?0 -
Nope!ratface said:I had both my children vacinnated
But I'm thinking that it would be prudent to have myself and spouse vacinated provided I can find a willing doctor. Did you encounter much resistance from Docs?
I showed her the study and I said even if it just helps me think more positive about survival it's worth it. I already got the first shot last Friday. I'm still waiting to see if my insurance will cover it; but the way I see it; I don't drink soda anymore to help prevent dental carries, so the money I save in mountain dew, root beer, etc will help pay for the cost!!! Besides it's worth it in my book!
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I'm behind; haven't read theRogerRN43 said:Yes, get the vaccine
Unlike stronger viruses, the difference here is the horse can still be caught, meaning HPV is normally eradicated by most people. In contrast, Hepatitis for example cannot be naturally eradicated so there is no point attempting a Hep vaccine after the fact.
So if HPV is the cause of your oral cancer, in theory, getting the vaccine is like giving your immune system a kick, and maybe, just maybe your immune system will "kick back" and keep the HPV virus in check so that it doesn't produce new tumors.
As mentioned, that "kick back" is inherent in most people when they naturally acquire HPV. Exactly how it would cause a better "kick back" if we SCC patients couldn't fight off HPV the first time is unclear. However, the cervical cancer study is showing just that. It is reducing recurrences in those that get the vaccine.
What's to lose? Read the side effects. Cost if not covered.
What's to gain? Possibly reducing your HPV to non-detectable levels or making it dormant, and warding off a recurrence.
Now for people who have compromised immune systems, it likely won't work well because it's not the vaccine that's doing the work, it's the body's response to it.
I'm behind; haven't read the new links.
Vaccines have a lot of products in them. I would start there.
Next; the weakened immune & your body not fighting it off the 1st time does raise questions on what it would do.
Wouldn't it be better to work on the immune system directly with something like Juice Plus? A net friend was at their convention; they did a cancer study. Next chance I get; I will see if I can find it. Possible it's on their web site or facebook page.
I'll be interested to see how everyone makes out. We're going to pass. My hubs immune system took a hit with lupus; then HPV oral cancer. I'm going to be ordering the Juice plus for him. He's 2 years out of treatment; last thing I want is a set back.0
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