Cervical cancer
HPV vaccination not associated with increase in sexually transmitted infections
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A barrier to human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccination has been the concern that it may promote unsafe sexual activity, but a new study of adolescent girls finds that HPV vaccination was not associated with increases in sexually transmitted infections (STIs), according to an article published online by JAMA Internal Medicine.
Nearly one-quarter of U.S. females between the ages 14 and 19 and 45 percent of women between the ages of 20 and 24 are affected by HPV. The HPV vaccination can prevent cervical, vulvar and vaginal cancers and genital warts caused by certain HPV strains. Still, HPV vaccination rates remain low in the United States and, by 2013, only 57 percent of females between the ages of 13 and 17 had received at least one dose, whereas only 38 percent had received all three recommended doses, according to the study background.
Anupam B. Jena, M.D., Ph.D., of Harvard Medical School, Boston, and coauthors used a large insurance database of females (ages 12 to 18) from 2005 through 2010 to examine STIs among girls who were vaccinated and those who were not.
United States CDC announces an HPV vaccine recall
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The United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) was informed by Merck on Monday that the pharmaceutical company planned to recall one lot of Gardasil [Human Papillomavirus Quadrivalent (types 6, 11, 16, and 18) Vaccine, Recombinant].
The CDC media statement released yesterday states that the recall is because a number of vials may contain glass particles as a result of breakage during the vaccine manufacturing process.
Abnormal cells in cervix raise cancer risk
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A woman’s age and the type of treatment she gets may play a big role in the risk that abnormal cells on the cervix will return or develop into cervical cancer, U.S. researchers said on Tuesday.
The said older women and women treated with a freezing procedure known as cryotherapy have the highest risks of having the abnormal cells come back or progress to cervical cancer.
How severe the abnormal changes in cells were in the first place also plays a role.
“We now have a much more clear idea of the risks of recurrent abnormal cells and invasive cervical cancer over time after treatment of these cells,” said Joy Melnikow of the University of California Davis, whose study appears in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute.
Only 1 in 5 women in developing world receive effective cervical cancer screening
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Few women in the developing world are screened effectively for cervical cancer and those at highest risk of developing the disease are among the least likely to be screened, accordingly an analysis published in PLoS Medicine. The study, by Emmanuela Gakidou (University of Washington, Seattle, USA) and colleagues, also finds striking inequalities in access to cervical cancer screening between and within countries.
Cervical cancer is the second-most common cancer in women and a leading cause of death worldwide. Since the 1970s, the developed world has seen a fall in the annual number of new cases of cervical cancer, and a fall in the death rate from the disease. This public health success is often credited to widespread screening programmes. But in the developing world, where most cervical cancer occurs, there is little information about rates of screening.
To address this lack of information and to estimate the magnitude of inequalities in access to screening services, Gakidou and colleagues analyzed World Health Organization surveys from 57 countries across all levels of economic development.
Worldwide Distribution of Cervical Cancer Virus is Consistent with Vaccine Targets
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The variety of human papilloma viruses that cause invasive cervical cancer cases worldwide are largely consistent across continents, according to a new study from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
This finding means that prophylactic vaccines currently available against these two most prevalent types of human papillomavirus (HPV) – which can cause cervical cancer – could prevent about 70 percent of invasive cervical cancer (ICC) cases around the world, the researchers found.
