Number of HPV-Associated Cancer Cases per Year

During 2003–2007, an average of 31,392 cancers were potentially associated with HPV (rate of 10.6 per 100,000) in the United States. The table below shows the average number of cases and the incidence rate for each type of HPV-associated cancer.

Incidence Counts and Rates of Potentially HPV-Associated Cancers by Sex and Site, 2003–2007

Yearly Incidence Counts of HPV-Associated Cancers in the United States, 2003–2007

Incidence source: Combined data from the National Program of Cancer Registries as submitted to CDC and from the Surveillance, Epidemiology and End Results program as submitted to the National Cancer Institute in November 2009.

Rates are per 100,000 persons and are age-adjusted to the 2000 U.S. standard population (19 age groups – Census P25-1130). Incidence rates cover approximately 97% of the U.S. population.

*The only head and neck cancers included here are a small group of cancers in specific areas (the oropharynx) often associated with HPV. Oral cancers were not included because of low HPV prevalence in oral cavity cancers. This classification is different from the oropharynx classification available in the United States Cancer Statistics: 1999–2007 Incidence and Mortality Web-based Report. More information on the specific cancer sites included here can be found in Ryerson AB, Peters ES, Coughlin SS, Chen VW, Gillison ML, Reichman ME, Wu X, Chaturvedi AK, Kawaoka K. Burden of potentially human papillomavirus-associated cancers of the oropharynx and oral cavity in the U.S., 1998–2003. Cancer 2008;113(S10):2901–2909.

All cancers were limited to cell types and cancer sites most likely to be HPV-associated, so these numbers will not match those found in the United States Cancer Statistics: 1999–2007 Incidence and Mortality Web-based Report. Methods used in this analysis, including case definition, were established in Watson M, Saraiya M, Ahmed F, Cardinez CJ, Reichman ME, Weir HK, Richards TB. Using population-based cancer registry data to assess the burden of human papillomavirus-associated cancers in the United States: Overview of methods. Cancer 2008;113(S10):2841–2854.

Information on deaths due to these cancers can be found in the United States Cancer Statistics: Incidence and Mortality Web-based Report. However, the mortality data do not contain information on cancer cell types, and information on cancer site is limited. Thus, incidence and mortality of these cancers should not be compared.