Will Cervical Cancer Cease to Exist?
Promising results from the vaccine..
Cervical cancer screening is incredibly robust.
It checks for human papilloma virus (HPV) and if positive, the sample is checked for cytology. If this is positive then patients are immediately referred for colposcopy. It sits as one of the most efficient screening programmes in the world.
Statistically speaking, 1 in 130 females will be diagnosed with cervical cancer in their lifetime with 99.8% of cases caused by human papilloma virus.
In addition to this, we now have an incredibly effective vaccine which has the potential to cut cases by 90%. The vaccine itself is offered to 11-12 year olds in two separate doses and it is expected that cervical cancer may well become a thing of the past.
This is a massive breakthrough and having spent some time in gynaecology recently, this vaccine could help reduce the health inequalities associated with HPV infection. The effects of poor access to healthcare, sexual health education and uptake of screening can possibly be offset by the vaccine.
It may well be that parents may inquire about the vaccine and we should be ready to advise patients. Unfortunately, patients have become “vaccine cautious” after the COVID vaccine but as clinicians, we should always be evidence-based. In this case, the evidence base is very strong, not only for protection against cervical cancer but also for mouth, anal, penile and other HPV-related cancers.
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