HPV jab has 'great potential' to prevent cervical cancer

[Guest guest]

http://www.netdoctor.co.uk/interactive/news/theme_news_detail.php?id=19567623 & tab_id=116

HPV jab has 'great potential' to prevent cervical cancer

Last updated 20 January 2010

The human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine should reduce the number of under-30s diagnosed with cervical cancer by nearly two-thirds by 2025, a new study shows.Research published in the British Journal of Cancer suggests that the number of women in their 20s who are diagnosed with the disease will drop by 63 per cent over the next 15 years.The figures are based on the assumption that 80 per cent of 12 and 13-year-old girls receive the vaccine.At present, 78 per cent of girls invited to be immunised have received all three doses of the vaccine.Professor Jack Cuzick, lead author from Queen , University of London, claimed that around 145 cases of cervical cancer will be prevented each year in the UK thanks to the vaccine.'Our predictions are really encouraging,' he enthused. 'If girls continue to take up the vaccine, thousands in the future could be prevented from developing cervical cancer and many more would avoid treatment to remove abnormal precancerous cells.'The UK's HPV vaccination programme currently uses a vaccine called Cervarix, which protects against types 16 and 18 of HIV.These two strains cause around seven in ten cases of cervical cancer.