CANCER MIRACLE
Vaccine to make world clear of disease in 40 years
AN END to cervical cancer is in sight and Australia is likely to be the first nation free of the killer disease thanks to the groundbreaking HPV vaccine.
The world’s leading cervical cancer experts will today issue an unprecedented statement announcing the disease is expected to be eradicated as a public health threat within the next 30-40 years – with benefits increasing every year as thousands of lives are saved.
AN end to cervical cancer is in sight and Australia is likely to be the first nation free of the killer disease thanks to the groundbreaking HPV vaccine.
The world’s leading cervical cancer experts will today issue an unprecedented statement announcing the disease is expected to be eradicated as a public health threat within the next 30-40 years – with benefits increasing every year as thousands more lives are saved.
Having led the way with HPV immunisation, Australia is forecast to be the first nation regarded as free of cervical cancer, according to the International Papillomavirus Society, which advises the World Health Organisation and leads global policy on the disease.
More than 800 Australian women are currently diagnosed and about 220 die of cervical cancer each year.
The proclamation comes as Melbourne researchers reveal the rate of human papillomavirus has dropped from one in five young Australian women a decade ago to just one in 100 today. HPV is responsible for almost all cervical cancer cases but, because it can take dec- ades for cancer to develop following infection, the full impact of Australia’s nineyear-old immunisation program will take years to filter through.
While survival rates have improved dramatically in many other forms of cancers, none has ever been eradicated. But Professor Suzanne Garland, from the Royal Women’s Hospital and University of Melbourne and a member of the IPVS, said doctors now have the tools to eradicate cervical cancer and only needed political will and public determination to wipe it out.
“We are forecasting that over the next 30-40 years, rates of cervical cancer will drop from around the current 1000 cases a year in Australia to just a few. Our national HPV immunisation program for both boys and girls, combined with our cervical cancer population screening, means we are well positioned to be the first country to effectively end this deadly cancer.”
The IPVS’ confidence is supported by research from Prof Garland’s team showing the HPV rate has dropped from 22.7 per cent to just 1.1 per cent over the past 10 years among women aged 18 to 24.