9-valent HPV vaccine also protective in males

The 9-valent HPV vaccine helps prevent HPV-related cancers in adolescents and young adult males, as shown in a retrospective study.

Researchers used data from a global database and looked at males between 9 and 26 years of age who were unvaccinated or received at least one 9-valent HPV vaccine between January 2016 and December 2024 with outcomes followed-up for up to 10 years.

A total of 615,155 vaccinated males (mean age 13.4 years) and 2,290,623 unvaccinated males (mean age 17.2 years) in the US were identified. Propensity score matching was performed, and 510,260 each in the vaccinated and the unvaccinated groups were included in the analyses.

Compared with participants in the unvaccinated group, those in the vaccinated group had a 46-percent reduced risk of HPV-related cancers (hazard ratio [HR], 0.54, 95 percent confidence interval [CI], 0.37–0.81; p=0.002).

In subgroup analysis, the protective benefit of the 9-valent HPV vaccine was observed regardless of age, with a 42-percent risk reduction among 9–14-year-olds (HR, 0.58, 95 percent CI, 0.34–0.97; p=0.04) and a 50-percent risk reduction among 15–26-year-olds (HR, 0.50, 95 percent CI, 0.27–0.93; p=0.03).

The findings show that the 9-valent HPV vaccine is also beneficial in males and underscore the importance of a sex-neutral vaccination approach for HPV-related cancer prevention.