Will cervical cancer be eradicated?
2/10/2005 London, England Dr Thomas Stuttaford TimesOnLine The United Kingdom cervical screening programme, which aims to detect pre-malignant changes in a woman’s cervix so that these may be treated before cervical cancer has formed, is said to be the most successful in the world. Even so, the occasional case of cervical cancer escapes the screening net and there is still a death rate. Sometimes this is because of a faulty smear-taking technique. The worst case I ever saw of this involved a fellow journalist, who had been reassured about persistent symptoms after the smear was passed as normal. The reassurance, on clinical grounds alone, was obviously misplaced and when the smear was repeated the cervix had tumours in three places, one of which, it transpired at surgery, could not be removed with what is known as an adequate margin. It is hoped that a vaccine will be prepared, but five years is the target for its introduction. Then it will given to all girls before they become sexually active. However, further advances will be needed before it can be predicted that cervical cancer will be eradicated. The present vaccines under trial protect against only two of the types of human papilloma virus (HPV) infection, HPV-16 and HPV-18, that regularly cause cancer. These two account for about 70 per cent of cases of cervical cancer. The remaining 30 per cent are caused by other types of HPV, especially but not exclusively HPV-31 and HPV-33. The current advance in vaccine therapy is [...]