Our modeling study published in Cancer journal showed how the anal cancer epidemic in gay and bisexual HIV-positive men can be prevented using HPV vaccination. Below are excerpts from the Los Angeles Times.

Anal cancer is predominantly caused by chronic or persistent human papillomavirus (HPV) infection. HPV infection can lead to the development of anal precancer which, if remains undetected or not adequately treated, may lead to anal cancer. The objective of screening is to identify and treat these precancers to prevent occurrence of anal cancer. However, one of the reasons for the lack of screening guidelines is that anal precancer treatment has not yet been shown to prevent invasive cancer. Our study, published in Cancer, attempts to find a possible solution to prevent anal cancer in HIV-positive gay and bisexual men, using the best available data. We found that age-specific anal precancer management, including post-treatment HPV vaccination, can potentially lead to an 80 percent decrease in lifetime risk of anal cancer and anal cancer mortality among gay and bisexual men.