HPV is now being talked about as a gender neutral disease - which is well overdue. While we have focused on girls and prevention of cervical, vulvar and vaginal cancers with the roll out of the HPV school vaccine initiative, we have overlooked HPV as a vector for disease in men and boys.

The spectrum of HPV disease in men includes genital warts, penile cancers, anal cancers and oropharyngeal cancers including cancers of the soft palate and tonsillar area.

Alarmingly HPV head and neck cancers are increasing at an alarming rate.

According to data on cancers-2009 in the U.S., oropharyngeal cancer in men was some 10,511 cancers and cervical cancer in women was 11,388 cancers.

In addition in the homosexual population the rates on Anal cancer in MSM is 35/100,000 people which is the same rate of cervical in women prior to pap screening of 35/100,000 people.

It is clear that HPV is a gender neutral disease so I was truly pleased with PEI's announcement of adding boys to the school program and more recently Alberta's announcement to include boys as well in their cancer prevention strategy.

HPV vaccine is indicated in boys at age 11 prior to onset of sexual activity but is also recommended in young men up to age 26. Prevention has always been our best and continues to be our best strategies. We have learned about HPV as the causative agent in all these cancers and we now have a safe and effective vaccine strategy.

In research just out this week from Argentina, 26 per cent of breast cancers studied demonstrated presence of HPV serotypes suggesting they can be a promoter of breast cancer in women.

Have the conversation with your health care provider now. It will be a while until we see all provinces adapting this gender neutral cancer strategy.