HPV vaccine: cervical cancer rate halved after first decade

A review of the effects of the first ten years of administration of the HPV vaccine have been published this month.

Cervical cancer is the most common cancer for women under 35.  In the EU every year, 60,000 women get cervical cancer and 30,000 die from it.   In the UK, 3,000 women a year are diagnosed with cervical cancer.

In the majority of cases, cervical cancer is caused by sexual transmission of  human papillomavirus (HPV).  About 80% of sexually active people will get HPV at some point but in the majority of people it does not lead to cervical cancer.

There are over 100 types of HPV and each type is given a number.   Different HPVs affect different parts of the body and cause lesions.   HPV 1 and 2 cause verrucas, some strains cause genital warts and some strains lead to certain cancers  including cervical cancer in women or penile/anal cancer in men.

The risk of cervical cancer is greatly reduced in countries offering a cervical screening programme.

But prevention is better than cure.  The world’s first HPV vaccine was developed by Prof Ian Frazer, Chief Executive of the Translational Research Institute, and his team in Australia.  It protects against various cancers, including cervical cancer and cancer of the throat and mouth.  But some parents feel that giving their children the vaccination is inviting them to have sexual intercourse so the uptake has not been as high as was hoped.    In the USA, only 37% of girls have received the vaccine.  To increase awareness of the vaccination, Disney princesses have been shown getting their HPV vaccination.

Prof Ian Frazer said “The papilloma viruses that cause cancer are very common indeed.  Most people get rid of the virus themselves without knowing they’ve contracted it, but 1% of the population that get it get persistent infection that lasts over five years. If they do that they’ve got a very good chance they’ll get a cancer.”  He went on to say “It helps not only control cervical cancer but also the oropharyngeal cancer – the cancers inside the mouth that are caused by these viruses.”

A team from the Royal Women’s Hospital, Department of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases, Australia have performed an analysis of the first 10 years of worldwide administration of the HPV vaccination published in the journal Clinical Infectious Diseases.  The review found that with more than 187 million doses of the vaccine administered in 130 countries around the world, the number of HPV infections fell by up to 90 percent in some areas, with similar decreases in genital warts and cervical abnormalities also being reported.  The authors conclude “In Australia and Denmark where programs had achieved high and timely coverage with catch-up vaccination, respective reductions as high as 57% in CIN2+ and 80% in CIN3+ lesions were reported in the youngest cohorts vaccinated shortly after program implementation.”

Professor Ian Frazer said “If we vaccinate enough people we will eliminate these viruses because they only infect humans. And in Australia there’s already been a 90% reduction in infections in the 10 years the programme has been running.  If delivered effectively to the majority of 10 to 12 year-old-girls in the developing world from today forward, it should lead to the global elimination of new cervical and other HPV associated cancers by 2050.”

But the authors of the review stated that “Globally, only 6.2% of females reaching 15 years of age in 2014 have received the vaccine.  Worldwide, >600 000 new cancer cases are attributable to HPV annually, and HPV still causes nearly 10% of all new cancers in women worldwide, disproportionately affecting women in developing-world regions where 86% of incident cervical cancer cases and 88% of cancer deaths occur.”

The authors go on to conclude “Disappointingly, preventable HPV-related diseases persist, underscoring the need for wide-reaching HPV vaccination programs with high population coverage prior to HPV exposure. Universal adoption of safe and effective prophylactic HPV vaccine programs targeting girls and boys before sexual debut can prevent the substantial morbidity and mortality still attributable to HPV worldwide.”

It is important to encourage worldwide vaccination to prevent cancers caused by HPV.

Read More:

Read the review here

Global women – why your daughter should have the HPV vaccine

Global women – cervical cancer prevention week

Global women – cervical cancer