Study Shows Elimination of Cervical Cancer With Vaccination; Oncologist Highlights the Importance

Dr Maurie Markman discusses results demonstrating the elimination of cervical cancer following vaccination in a population-based study.
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-- TRANSCRIPT --
Hello. I'm Dr Maurie Markman, from City of Hope, and I would like to very briefly talk about a paper that was recently published. I think it may still only be present online as an early presentation. This is one of the most spectacular studies, I think, we've seen in oncology in a long time. You'll hear about that in a moment.
The paper is "Invasive Cervical Cancer Incidence Following Bivalent Human Papillomavirus Vaccination: A Population-Based Observational Study of Age at Immunization, Dose, and Deprivation." I can't be clearer on what the results of the study demonstrate and how important this is for young individuals - in the case of cervical cancer, of course, we are talking about women - but also regarding HPV-related cancers in general.
This was a population-based study from Scotland where they monitored the records of all women - because it's population-based data - who were born between 1988 and 1996, who are eligible to receive screening for cancer. This included a very large population of 450,000 women.
Important to the conclusion is that there were 40,000 women at the time who were vaccinated between the ages of 12 and 13. Obviously, we're talking in the past. There were 40,000 of these women who were vaccinated and then followed. There were also 124,000 women who received vaccines at the age of 14 or over. A total of 300,000 women were not vaccinated.
Again, this was not a trial. This was real, hardcore, population-based data. This is as good as it gets from the point of if you want to know whether a therapy works or doesn't work.
The bottom line is - and I'm going to say this twice because I really want this to sink in - there were no cases. Let me say it again: There were no cases of cervical cancer among the 40,000 women who were vaccinated before the age of 14 years. One more time: Zero cases. Complete prevention of cervical cancer in this population with vaccination. This included even the women who had received only one or two doses of the vaccine. We're beginning to learn that perhaps we don't even need the three doses. It was a three-dose protocol, but there no cases in 40,000 women if they were vaccinated before the age of 14.
In the women who were vaccinated between 14 and 22 years of age, there was also substantial benefit. There were 3.2 cases per 100,000 women compared with 8.4 cases if they weren't vaccinated. That's two and a half times lower risk compared with the unvaccinated. There was benefit in that population.
Again, if vaccination occurred, generally, say, before sexual debut, complete eradication and elimination of cervical cancer.
I would encourage you to read this paper. It's not the only one that's shown data for this, but this is population-based data with long-term follow-up and very careful analysis showing that cervical cancer can almost be, if not actually be, eliminated with vaccination before sexual debut.
Transcript in its entirety can be found by clicking here:
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