HPV Vaccine Protects Even Those Who Skip It

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A Vaccine Protects Those Who Skip It

Other experts in infectious diseases agreed that the study demonstrates how important it is to get vaccinated.

"I think it is important to point out to potential vaccine recipients that herd immunity is routinely achieved when greater than 80 percent of the population has been vaccinated," said Robert Rose, professor emeritus of infectious diseases at the University of Rochester in Rochester, N.Y. "Thus, it is incumbent upon immune-competent individuals to participate in the vaccine effort in order to protect those who are in one way or another immune-compromised."

HPV is responsible for the most common sexually transmitted infections. There are more than 100 types of HPV, including more than 40 high-risk types of infection that are responsible for causing approximately 70 percent of cervical cancers, genital warts, vaginal and anal cancers and a growing number of head and neck cancers, especially in men.

Since these viruses have the ability to cause such widespread disease, current recommendations from the U.S. Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices include vaccination against HPV for both males and females ages 9 to 26.

"Substantially decreasing the incidence of this disease by using a preventive vaccine is so exciting, especially when approximately 20 percent of human cancers are caused by an infection," said Dr. Connie Trimble, an OB/Gyn and HPV researcher at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Md.

Despite the growing body of research supporting HPV vaccination, however, HPV vaccination rates among young people remain low. According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, rates were only around 49 percent for the first out of three required doses. Additionally, while the current HPV vaccine shows effectiveness in reducing the prevalence of the four most high-risk types of infection in Kahn's study, other types of HPV remain prevalent.

Dr. James Turner, member of the Vaccine Preventable Disease Committee at the University of Virginia, said there remains a need to continue to improve and change the vaccine in a way that acts against the types of the virus that remain prevalent in the community.

"I believe manufacturers are in Phase II studies of developing new vaccines that cover up to nine

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Vitamin E in diet protects against many cancers, study suggests

ScienceDaily (Apr. 23, 2012) — Next time you need to choose between vegetable oil and margarine in that favorite recipe, think about your health and reach for the oil.

See Also:Health & MedicineCancerProstate CancerBreast CancerColon CancerVitaminLeukemiaLiving WellReferenceVitamin EB vitaminsVitamin DHealth benefits of tea

While the question of whether vitamin E prevents or promotes cancer has been widely debated in scientific journals and in the news media, scientists at the Center for Cancer Prevention Research, at Rutgers Ernest Mario School of Pharmacy, and the Cancer Institute of New Jersey, believe that two forms of vitamin E -- gamma and delta-tocopherols -- found in soybean, canola and corn oils as well as nuts do prevent colon, lung, breast and prostate cancers.

"There are studies suggesting that vitamin E actually increases the risk of cancer and decreases bone density," says Chung S. Yang, director of the center. "Our message is that the vitamin E form of gamma-tocopherols, the most abundant form of vitamin E in the American diet, and delta-tocopherols, also found in vegetable oils, are beneficial in preventing cancers while the form of vitamin E, alpha- tocopherol, the most commonly used in vitamin E supplements, has no such benefit."

Yang and colleagues, Nanjoo Suh and Ah-Ng Tony Kong, summarized their findings recently in Cancer Prevention Research, a journal of the American Association for Cancer Research. In a Commentary, "Does Vitamin E Prevent or Promote Cancer?"

the Rutgers scientists discuss animal studies done at Rutgers as well as human epidemiological studies that have examined the connection between vitamin E and cancer.

Yang says Rutgers scientists conducting animal studies for colon, lung, breast and prostate cancer found that the forms of vitamin E in vegetable oils, gamma and delta-tocopherols, prevent cancer formation and growth in animal models.

"When animals are exposed to cancer-causing substances, the group that was fed these tocopherols in their diet had fewer and smaller tumors," Yang says. "When cancer cells were injected into mice these tocopherols also slowed down the development of tumors."

In researching colon cancer, Yang pointed to another recently published paper in Cancer Prevention Research indicating that the delta-tocopherol form of vitamin E was more effective than other forms of vitamin E in suppressing the development of colon cancer in rats.

This is good news for cancer research. Recently, in one of the largest prostate cancer clinical trials in the United States and Canada, scientists found that the most commonly used form of vitamin E supplements, alpha-tocopherol, not only did not prevent prostate cancer, but its use significantly increased the risk of this disease among healthy men.

This is why, Yang says, it is important to distinguish between the different forms of vitamin E and conduct more research on its cancer preventive and other biological effects.

"For people who think that they need to take vitamin E supplements," Yang says, "taking a mixture of vitamin E that resembles what is in our diet would be the most prudent supplement to take."

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