Hugely Cutting the Risk of Acquiring Human Papillomavirus

A 12-year-old girl gets a series of vaccines, including one for HPV, at a back-to-school clinic in Westminster, Calif., on Aug. 19. A new study out of the U.K. says that giving the Cervarix HPV vaccine at age 12 or 13 dramatically reduces the risk of cervical cancer. (Lucy Nicholson/Reuters)

"Our findings should greatly reassure those still hesitant about the benefits of HPV vaccination."

"We have shown that HPV vaccination with high coverage in 12-13 year old girls has almost eliminated cervical cancer and cervical precancer up to age 25 [the extent of the observed data]."

Study researchers

 

"It's a very exciting study, because it's the first study that's actually shown the HPV vaccine can prevent cervix cancer."

"All previous studies have shown that the vaccine can prevent the precancers."

"Many of us assumed it prevented cancers, but there were non-believers who wanted to see the cancer data. So here it is. Now we have it."

Dr. Amanda Selk, obstetrician-gynecologist, Mount Sinai Hospital, Toronto

This undated image provided by Merck in October 2018 shows a vial and packaging for the Gardasil 9 vaccine. Gardisil and Gardisil 9 are more commonly used in Canada. (Merck/The Associated Press)

According to a long-running British study, young women vaccinated against human papillomavirus (HPV) in their teen years with a vaccine called Cervarix produced by GlaxoSmithKline gained up to 87 percent lower risk of developing cervical cancer linked to HPV. In their 20s, those who had been inoculated with that series of shots between age 12 and 13 saw cervical cancer rates 87 percent lower than unvaccinated women screened for the malignancy. 

When the shots were given between ages 14 and 15 the cancer rate was 62 percent lower, and further reduced by 34 percent for women whose vaccination took place between the ages of 15 and 18, statistics revealed by research reported in The Lancet medical journal. In addition, precancerous condition rates were reduced by 97 percent when shots were given at ages 12- and 13-year time frame.

Funded by Cancer Research UK, the study looked at registry data from January of 2006 to June 2019 carried out on women screened for cervical cancer between ages 20 and 64. Women who received the Cervarix vaccine after it became available in 2008 were included in the study. Within that 13-year time frame approximately 28,000 diagnoses of cervical cancer and 300,000 of the precancerous condition, cervical intraepithelial neoplasia (CIN3) were recorded in Britain.

Some 450 fewer cases of cervical cancer and 17,200 fewer cases of CIN3 emerged in the young women who were vaccinated than might have been expected in unvaccinated women of the same age cohort. "We hope that these new results encourage  uptake as the success of the vaccination program relies not only on the efficacy of the vaccine but also the proportion of the population vaccinated", noted study co-author, Kate Soldan of the UK Health Security Agency. 

Two types of HPV are responsible for roughly 70 to 80 percent of all cervical cancers, protected by Cervarix, developed by GSK. Merck & Co's quadrivalent vaccine Gardasil protects against four HPV types linked to cervical, head and neck cancers and has been used instead of Cervarix, in Britain. The study authors point to the future need to follow up as women age, to more fully assess the impact of the vaccines.

The human papillomavirus, or HPV, vaccine is cutting cases of cervical cancer by nearly 90%, the first real-world data shows. Getty Images

Prevention is the Cure

"We have an amazing, safe vaccine to prevent cancer and we offer this to every student in every province and territory through public health."

"[Because of the pandemic] there has been a  huge decrease in immunization. We have to catch up and protect people from the risk of HPV, the risk of cancer."

Dr.Vivien Brown, past president, Federation of Medical Women of Canada, chair, co-founder HPV prevention week in Canada

"One woman in three who get cervical cancer will die from it. People don't seem to understand how lethal this cancer can be."

"Those who survive it can become unable to bear children because of [cancer] treatment."

"It's not a nice cancer to get."

Dr.Jennifer Blake, CEO, Society of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists of Canada

All Ontario children normally receive two doses of the HPV vaccine in Grade 7, first in the fall and then in the spring. (Harry Cabluc/Associated Press file photo)

 

Dr. Blake, obstetrician and gynaecologist at The Ottawa Hospital group is a clinician treating young patients with cervical cancer. Her experience has given her a deep understanding of the value inherent in cervical cancer prevention -- as the second-most-common cancer in women between age 20 and 44. All cancers are alarmingly devastating to the health, quality of life and longevity of those who contract them, cervical cancer in particular can be life-altering and lethal.

Childhood vaccines routinely offered to teen-age girls through public health at school-based clinics have turned statistics around, protecting girls and women from a dread cancer diagnosis. The delivery of that vaccine, however, has been interrupted during this time of the global pandemic when schools have been closed and remote learning has become the default in the public education system -- which has meant a vacuum now exists, the numbers of vaccinated have drastically dropped as vaccine delivery was halted.

 

 

The concern arising among medical experts is that a rise in cervical and other cancers may result from the lapse in the aggressive HPV (human papillomavirus) vaccine injections. As the most common sexually transmitted viral infection, HPV can be harmless and usually is, fading of its own volition, but for some unfortunates it can lead to cervical or head and neck cancers. Avoidance of that occurrence is of huge importance.

Widespread use of the HPV vaccine has had a dramatic effect in reducing cases of cervical cancer, according to studies, particularly among girls vaccinated before age 17. Some HPV-caused head and neck cancers in both men and women are believed to be forestalled by the vaccine, as well. School closures resulting in a lapse of the vaccine delivery is now a matter of some alarm for what the future may bring.

In 2019, 410 of the 1,350 Canadian women who developed cervical cancer died from its effects. A new HPV test to detect the virus prior to it causing precancerous changes is replacing the conventional Pap test, long in use. Australia has made the HPV vaccine available to everyone and in so doing has just about eliminated cervical cancer cases there.

 

A study published last year in the New England Journal of Medicine found that girls vaccinated before turning 17 were significantly less likely to develop cervical cancer. (Joe Raedle/Getty)