Cervical cancer is one of the few cancers that can often be prevented. Yet thousands of people are diagnosed each year with the disease, which is overwhelmingly linked to a common virus for which a vaccine exists.
“HPV (human papillomavirus) is an incredibly common virus that 80% of adults will have at some point in their lives,” said Dr. Linda Eckert, a professor of obstetrics and gynecology at the University of Washington School of Medicine.
Eckert’s comments come on the heels of a study published this month in the Lancet that found high HPV vaccination rates were associated with greatly reduced cervical cancer death rates. The researchers found that women ages 20 to 24 in England between 2020 and 2024 had high youth vaccination rates and no cervical cancer deaths.
“There were zero cases of cervical cancer in this age group, and the researchers were expecting to find 23 cases. So the vaccine was 100% effective against cervical cancer,” said Eckert.
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