Reply to Letter to the Editor regarding “Sexual health in oral oncology: Breaking the news to patients with human papillomavirus‐positive oropharyngeal cancer”

To the Editor: We are grateful to Griffith et al. for the opportunity to clarify this point. We intended to convey that the partners of patients with human papillomavirus (HPV)16-positive oropharyngeal cancer would be unlikely to benefit from prophylactic vaccination to prevent infection with HPV16, as they are likely to already have been exposed to this HPV type. Because both Cervarix and Gardasil prevent infection with HPV16 and 18, it is correct that such partners could still benefit from the protection conferred against HPV18. However, it is important to note that such an individual is at no greater risk from HPV18-associated disease that an equivalent age/environment matched control whose partner does not have an HPV-associated cancer.