Public debate about the vaccine — and, possibly, the low levels of vaccine use among adolescents — likely stems from the virus’ sexual transmission, said Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center virologist Dr. Denise Galloway. Galloway made critical discoveries linking HPV to cervical and other cancers and her laboratory helped lay the groundwork that made the vaccine’s development possible.

“[The low uptake] has to do with it being considered a vaccine to protect against a sexually transmitted infection, that’s likely the case,” said Galloway in a previous interview. “Even though hepatitis B should fall in that same category, it’s been portrayed more as protecting against a liver disease.”

Galloway and her colleagues at Fred Hutch, which is among the NCI-designated cancer centers issuing the statement in support of HPV vaccination, want parents and adolescents to think about the HPV vaccine in the light of cancer, not sex.

“I think people in the United States are leery of vaccines or they don’t trust pharma or they don’t want to talk about sex,” Galloway said. “So something that could prevent cancer is not having the impact that it should.”

Proactive steps to combat a public health threat

Even though so few U.S. families are following recommendations for this particular vaccine, it is still having a positive effect: HPV infection rates among adolescent girls dropped from nearly 12 percent in the years before the vaccine was routinely available to about 5 percent after the vaccine was introduced in 2006.

The CDC also estimates that every year, 27,000 men and women are diagnosed with HPV-driven cancers. The majority of these diseases can be prevented with currently available HPV vaccines.

“The HPV vaccine is an amazing public health advance, but it doesn’t guarantee eradication of HPV. It’s important to remember that the vaccine works best in those who haven’t been infected with the virus, which means, essentially, people who are not yet sexually active,” said Dr. Gary Gilliland, president and director of Fred Hutch.

The cancer centers’ consensus statement arose from a summit held at MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston last November to discuss concerns about low HPV vaccination rates in the U.S. and ways to improve uptake. Experts from more than half of NCI-designated cancer centers, the NCI, CDC and American Cancer Society met at the event, starting conversations to develop the shared endorsement for HPV vaccination.

The statement also echoes the spirit of President Barack Obama’s recent call for a “moonshot” to cure cancer. In 2013, the President’s Cancer Panel, comprised of expert advisers to the president on cancer-related topics, chose to focus its yearly report and recommendations on improving HPV vaccine uptake.

“The President’s Cancer Panel applauds the NCI-designated cancer centers for issuing this consensus statement urging HPV vaccination for the prevention of cancer in support of the Panel’s recommendations,” Dr. Barbara Rimer, chair of the panel, said in an email. “We are confident that if HPV vaccination for girls and boys is made a public health priority, hundreds of thousands will be protected from these HPV-associated diseases and cancers over their lifetimes.”

Cancer center representatives hope that by joining together, they will send a stronger message to the U.S. public that the vaccine is a safe and important means to prevent potentially deadly cancers.

“Every day we delay, that means more people are going to get infections that in the future could end up causing cancers that could have been prevented,” said Dr. Melinda Wharton, director of the CDC’s National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, at the summit. “There really is great urgency to stop this from happening.”