Cervical cancer arrives eighteen years earlier than the other HPV cancers

Human papillomavirus causes cancer at six sites, and the ages at which those
cancers are diagnosed are not the same.

The median is the age at which half of patients were older and half younger.

The eighteen-year gap

**Cervical cancer is usually diagnosed at younger ages than the other
HPV-associated cancers** — by nearly two decades against the vulvar, vaginal
and penile ones.

That difference is the practical reason screening for cervical cancer exists
and screening for the others does not. Cervical cancer has a long,
detectable precancerous stage and a well-defined window in which to catch it,
and it strikes people young enough that catching it changes many years of
life.

It is also a reminder that HPV vaccination is not a cervical cancer
intervention. The vaccine given at 11 or 12 is protecting against a penile
cancer at 69 and an anal cancer at 62 as well — outcomes so distant that they
make almost no impression on the decision being taken in the clinic room.

**HPV-associated anal and oropharyngeal cancers are generally diagnosed at
slightly younger ages in males than in females.**

Source: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.