Study charts HPV prevalence
Jul 16 2008
Researchers from the Arizona Cancer Center recently completed a study on the prevalence of the anal human papillomavirus (HPV) in heterosexual men.
Much research concerning HPV has focused mainly on women — for example, developing a vaccine for HPV in women — and on homosexual men.
Of the 222 men in the study from Tucson and Tampa, Fla., who acknowledged having had no prior sexual intercourse with other men, nearly 25 percent were found to have an anal HPV infection.
Of the men with infections, 33.3 percent had at least one of 13 types that eventually lead to cancer.
The researchers have secured funding from the National Cancer Institute to replicate the study in a larger group of men from the United States, Mexico, and Brazil.
