Samara Heisz/iStock via Getty Images A new study found that adolescent and adult males who received Merck's ( NYSE: MRK ) HPV vaccine Gardasil had a significantly lower rate of developing head and neck cancer compared to those who didn't get the shot. Gardasil 9 is indicated for females and males ages nine to 45 years old to prevent various cancers caused by the human papillomavirus. The new study examined health records of ~3.
5M Americans between the ages of 9 and 39 who had received any type of vaccine from 2010-2023. Of the ~1.5M males, half had received the HPV vaccine.
Of those who were vaccinated, 21 developed head and neck cancer compared to 48 in the unvaccinated group. Those numbers are relatively low as head and neck cancers mostly develop in those over the age of 50 . Overall, there were 26 cases of men who developed any type of HPV-related cancers in those who were HPV vaccinated compared to 57 in those who weren't.
The study will be presented at the upcoming 2024 ASCO Annual Meeting that begins on May 31. More on Merck Merck & Co., Inc.
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