Researchers say one childhood vaccine is preventing hundreds of cancer deaths
One of the only vaccines that prevents cancer is even more effective than scientists knew. For young women who receive the HPV vaccine in their early teen years, the risk of dying from cervical cancer before turning 30 is effectively reduced to zero, according to new research published in The Lancet. While the HPV vaccine was known to prevent around 90% of cervical cancer cases, the new study is the first to explore its impact on mortality rates – and the results reveal just how strong the vaccine’s protection really is. The study, funded by Cancer Research UK, offers powerful evidence that HPV vaccination programs are saving lives. In England, roughly 200 cervical cancer deaths have been prevented to date, but those numbers are much larger on a global scale. HPV, short for human papillomavirus, is a common sexually-transmitted infection that is spread through skin to skin contact. While the immune system usually flushes out HPV infection, it can cause abnormal cell growth in some infected people, which can cause multiple forms of cancer years later. In its aim to eliminate cervical cancer worldwide, the World Health Organization is pushing all of its member countries to vaccinate 90% of girls by age 15. If its goals are met, 62 million deaths from cervical cancer could be prevented by the year 2120. In the paper, the researchers point to their findings as evidence that the WHO’s goals are within reach, urging even more focus on boosting vaccine uptake in young people around the world. Globally, cervical cancer is the fourth most common cancer diagnosed in women, causing an estimated 660,000 new cases per year. In 2022, 94% of the 350,000 deaths from cervical cancer were in low and middle income countries, particularly in Central America, Southeast Asia and sub-Saharan Africa. “As vaccinated generations grow older, we’ll see many more lives saved from cervical cancer,” the publication’s lead researcher Professor Peter Sasieni said. “It is incredible to think that a