“Start at Age 9 Call-to-Action” – Supporting the National HPV Vaccination Roundtable’s Newest Campaign | Deanna Teoh, MD

The devastating effects of cervical, vaginal, and vulvar cancers are all too apparent, and gynecologic malignancies are only a subset of the 47,199 new cases of HPV-associated cancers diagnosed annually in the United States. As gynecologic oncologists and specialists in related fields, we know the best way to improve survival is to prevent HPV-associated cancers entirely.

The National HPV Vaccination Roundtable (HPVRT) is a coalition of 65 organizations, including the Society of Gynecologic Oncology (SGO), with expertise relevant to increasing HPV vaccination coverage in the United States. It was founded in 2014 by the American Cancer Society and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The mission of HPVRT is to raise HPV vaccination coverage and prevent HPV-associated cancers in the United States. It supports stakeholders at all levels from parents/guardians who can get factual information about the HPV vaccine directly from the HPVRT media, to clinicians, health systems and state coalitions.

HPVRTs latest campaign urges HPV vaccination starting at nine years of age, allowing for vaccine series completion by age 13. SGO has supported this call to action as an organization (organizational endorsement will soon be shared on the HPVRT website and social media pages), and I urge individual SGO members to support this effort as well.

How?

• We can encourage our patients to recommend HPV vaccination to their family and community members to protect them against preventable gynecologic cancers.
• We can urging our health systems to create workflows which use evidence-based strategies to maximize HPV vaccination.
• We can work with our state or national organizations to promote cancer prevention through HPV vaccination.

Don’t know where to start? Visit the HPVRT website, where they have multiple toolkits available, created based on evidence-based strategies. HPVRT even has “back on track” materials to guide healthcare providers and health systems to recover from the COVID pandemic, during which adolescent healthcare visits and vaccinations decreased by 71%.

I’m all-in to eradicate HPV-associated malignancies. Are you?