prostate-report.org

Parents would want their sons to have prostate cancer vaccine

If scientists will could develop a “prostate cancer vaccine” that could be given to boys some time in their youth, a large percentage of parents would want their sons to have this vaccine. The problem is that that type of vaccine (to date) only works when it stops people getting an infection. While prostate cancer has been “associated” with the presence of certain types of virus over the years (the most recent candidate being the XMRV virus), there is still no evidence that a virus actually causes a patient to get prostate cancer.

It is not the same situation with cervical cancer. By contrast, it has been very clearly shown to be the consequence, in a very high proportion of women, of infection with certrain types of human papilloma virus (HPV), which is why the recently developed vaccines have been so effective in reducing the risk for cervical cancer.