Britain could eliminate cervical cancer by 2055
CERVICAL cancer could be eliminated in the UK by 2055, saving thousands of lives, say experts.
Scientists said cases could be eradicated within three decades if more women received the HPV vaccine and attended screening.
If the same measures were implemented worldwide, it is believed 13 million cases could be prevented by 2050.
The disease could be eliminated as a major public health problem in 149 out of 181 countries by 2099.
Professor Karen Canfell, from Cancer Council New South Wales, Australia, said: “Despite the enormity of the problem, our findings suggest that global elimination is within reach with the tools already available.
Exciting
“That is provided that both high coverage of HPV vaccination and cervical screening can be achieved.”
In May last year the World Health Organisation called for co-ordinated action to eliminate cervical cancer.
The disease is chiefly caused by high-risk strains of the HPV virus, which is transmitted by sex and intimate skin-to-skin contact.
Each year there are more than 3,000 new cases in the UK and around 850 women die. In high-income countries the disease is on the retreat thanks to HPV vaccination and screening.
Today about 99.8 per cent of cases in Britain are considered to be preventable. Robert Music, of Jo’s Cervical Cancer Trust, said: “To discover there is a cancer that can be eliminated is truly exciting.
“The HPV vaccine and cervical screening programmes provide fantastic weapons against this awful disease.
“On the horizon are further advancements such as more effective vaccines, potential for epigenetic testing and HPV self-sampling, which will get us even closer to elimination. Yet disparities in provision of and access to even the basic programmes worldwide are stark.
“We are seeing far too many diagnoses and deaths that could be prevented.”
Researchers analysed data from the International Agency for Research on Cancer, then calculated the impact of scaling up HPV vaccination and screening in 181 countries between 2020 and the end of the century.
They found that boosting global vaccination coverage to more than 80 per cent by 2020 and twice lifetime screening rates to 70 per cent could result in cervical cancer being eliminated in the richest countries by 2055.
At that point fewer than four in 100,000 women a year would develop the disease.
Deaths
Mark Jit, professor of vaccine epidemiology at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, said: “We now have the technological tools, an effective vaccine and a highly sensitive screening test to eliminate both cervical cancer and the virus that causes it.
“Uptake of these life-saving interventions has been poor in low and middleincome countries, despite the majority of cervical cancer deaths occurring there.
“Making a significant dent in these deaths will require concerted global effort.
“It will include bringing vaccines and screening programmes into communities that have never seen them before.”
An estimated 570,000 new cervical cancer cases are diagnosed each year worldwide, making it the fourth commonest cancer in women. Cases are set to soar due to population growth and ageing, researchers said.