HPV vaccine could prevent thousands of cancer cases each year. Over a third of Americans don’t know about it

Imagine if there were a vaccine for breast cancer, lung cancer, prostate cancer, uterine cancer, ovarian cancer or any of the most well-known cancers that sicken and kill so many people.

Every year, there are an estimated 48,000 new cases of cancers associated with the human papillomavirus, or HPV, in the United States, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention . But in the case of HPV, there actually is a vaccine.

Yet public awareness remains low . Over one-third of American adults are unaware of HPV or the HPV vaccine, according to a new research letter published Thursday in JAMA Oncology. In some states, the numbers are significantly higher.

That’s why people need to know about HPV, the cancers linked to the virus, and the effectiveness of the HPV vaccine.