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Ross D. Cranston, Young Gay Men and the Quadrivalent Human Papillomavirus Vaccine—Much to Gain (and Lose), The Journal of Infectious Diseases, Volume 209, Issue 5, 1 March 2014, Pages 635–638, https://doi.org/10.1093/infdis/jit627
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(See the major article by Huachun et al on pages 642–51.)
Human papillomavirus (HPV) is the world's most common viral sexually transmitted infection [1, 2]. Approximately 40 HPV types infect anogenital squamous epithelium and can be broadly divided into low-risk (eg, HPV 6, 11) and high-risk (eg, HPV 16, 18) phenotypes based on their historical association with cervical cancer. This relationship also holds true for other anogenital (anal, vulvar, vaginal) and oropharyngeal malignancies. Although most HPV infections are asymptomatic, when symptoms do occur, they often reflect the presence of warts, dysplasia, or frank malignancy.
Anogenital HPV infection is mostly transient in both sexes, with persistent high-risk HPV infection associated with the development of squamous-cell cancers [3, 4]. HPV prevalence data vary by gender, with men being more likely to have higher-level detection over a wider age range than women, whose prevalence decreases from a peak in their early 20s [3, 5] However, it is men who have sex with men (MSM) who have the highest rates of anogenital HPV infection and also HPV-associated malignancy, particularly HPV 16–associated anal cancer [6, 7].
