Each year in the United States, about 49,908 new cancers are diagnosed in parts of the body where human papillomavirus (HPV) is often found — 27,081 in women and 22,827 in men. HPV probably causes about 39,300 of them.
- In women, the most common HPV-associated cancer is cervical cancer.
- In men, it is oropharyngeal cancer — cancer of the back of the throat, including the base of the tongue and the tonsils.
Two ways of counting
HPV-associated cancers are specific cell types of cancer in places where HPV is often found: carcinomas of the cervix, and squamous cell carcinomas of the vagina, vulva, penis, anus and oropharynx. Cancer registries don't routinely test tumors for HPV, so researchers estimate these from registry data on where a cancer is and what kind of cells it is made of.
HPV-attributable cancers are the ones probably caused by HPV. HPV causes nearly all cervical cancers and many cancers of the vagina, vulva, penis, anus, rectum and oropharynx. A CDC study that looked for HPV in tumor tissue estimated what share of each is caused by the virus; multiplying the HPV-associated count by that share gives the HPV-attributable count. For example, of about 8,348 anal cancers a year, about 91% — some 7,600 — are thought to be caused by HPV. (Rectal cancer wasn't in the genotyping study, so the anal-cancer percentage is used for it, since recent studies show the two HPV-associated cancer types are similar.)
The numbers, per year
| Site | HPV-associated cancers | Share probably caused by HPV | Probably caused by HPV |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cervix | 12,287 | 91% | 11,100 |
| Vagina | 889 | 75% | 700 |
| Vulva | 4,370 | 69% | 3,000 |
| Penis | 1,429 | 63% | 900 |
| Anus (with rectal squamous cell carcinoma) | 8,348 | 91% | 7,600 |
| — women | 5,726 | 93% | 5,300 |
| — men | 2,622 | 89% | 2,300 |
| Oropharynx | 22,585 | 70% | 16,000 |
| — women | 3,809 | 63% | 2,400 |
| — men | 18,776 | 72% | 13,600 |
| Total | 49,908 | 79% | 39,300 |
| — women | 27,081 | 84% | 22,500 |
| — men | 22,827 | 74% | 16,800 |
HPV types come from the genotyping study (Saraiya M, et al., J Natl Cancer Inst 2016); most were high-risk types known to cause cancer. Estimates are rounded to the nearest 100, so they may not add up exactly.
Where the data come from
The figures come from population-based cancer registries in CDC's National Program of Cancer Registries and the National Cancer Institute's SEER program for 2018 to 2022, covering the entire U.S. population. To pick out the cancers most likely to be HPV-associated:
- every cancer was confirmed under the microscope;
- cervical cancers were limited to carcinomas;
- all other sites were limited to squamous cell carcinomas.
Rates of HPV-associated cancers can be explored in CDC's U.S. Cancer Statistics Data Visualizations tool.
Sources
Based on "Cancers Linked with HPV Each Year," Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; a work of the United States government in the public domain. A stock photograph is left out.
Licence: CC0 1.0 (public domain) · Adapted from www.cdc.gov
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