The Cancer Therapy & Research Center (CTRC) of UT Health San Antonio is uniting today, Jan. 11, with all the other National Cancer Institute (NCI)-designated cancer centers in the U.S. in issuing a joint statement urging parents to have their children immunized against human papillomavirus (HPV) and physicians to recommend it.
The virus is responsible for the majority of cervical, anal, oropharyngeal (middle throat) and other genital cancers. HPV-associated cancers have continued to rise, with approximately 39,000 new HPV-associated cancers diagnosed each year in the U.S.; however, only 41.9 percent of girls and 28.1 percent of boys complete the recommended vaccination series.