This Vaccine Has Prevented Cancer In An Entire Generation Of Women.
A landmark study from Queen Mary University of London has found that girls vaccinated against human papillomavirus at ages 12 to 13 now have close to zero risk of dying from cervical cancer before age 30, confirming what researchers had long hoped the vaccine would eventually prove and delivering what the lead researcher described as an incredible milestone in cancer prevention. The study, the first of its kind, found that between 2020 and 2024 no cervical cancer deaths were recorded in women aged 20 to 24 in England, the first time a zero-death count had been recorded over any five-year period for that age group. Without vaccination, approximately 23 deaths would have been expected during that window. Overall, around 200 lives have been saved in England since school-age girls began being offered the HPV vaccine in 2008. Professor Peter Sasieni, the lead researcher and a cancer epidemiologist at Queen Mary, said it is incredible to think that a single jab can almost eliminate a particular type of cancer.
Cancer Research UK, which funded the study, called the findings an incredible milestone and said the HPV vaccine is proving extremely effective at stopping cervical cancer before it starts, with the research now showing for the first time that it is directly saving lives. The UK government has pledged to eliminate cervical cancer as a public health problem by 2040, but officials acknowledged that vaccination rates are currently running below the levels needed to achieve that goal: 76 percent of girls in England were vaccinated by age 15 in 2024 to 2025, well below the 90 percent threshold the World Health Organization says is required for elimination. Sasieni described the current reduction in deaths as the tip of the iceberg, saying that as vaccinated generations grow older, many more lives will be saved, and that what has been observed so far in younger women is only the beginning of the effect. Boys have also been offered the vaccine since 2019, which protects them against several other HPV-related cancers and reduces the likelihood of passing the virus to others. Health officials urged anyone who missed their vaccination to come forward through catch-up programs now available at community pharmacies across England.
