Experts Debate Giving HPV Vaccine to Boys

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Another expert, Dr. Robert Frenck, a professor of pediatrics at Cincinnati Children's Hospital, was equally noncommittal. Frenck, who sits on the American Academy of Pediatrics' committee on infectious diseases, said his group is "in the process of developing the recommendations for HPV vaccine use." He said the AAP recommendations would focus only on the vaccine's "currently [FDA] licensed usage," which is exclusively for females.

Still, Bookman believes that, should Gardasil prove effective in boys, widening its use to both sexes "is the correct way to try and do things."

"What about everything that we know about controlling any other type of infectious process? Where we wouldn't discriminate on the basis of sex, we would vaccinate universally," he said. "Yes, in women cervical cancer is a more serious risk statistically than other cancers in men. But I think that the best way of controlling it with a vaccine is to use it broadly."

More information

Learn more about HPV and cervical cancer at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.