The HPV Vaccine Should Be Preventing Cervical Cancer: Can We Tell Whether It Actually Is?

The suspense is tough. Will the HPV vaccine reduce cervical cancer and related deaths or won’t it? It should, but this is a disease that takes so long to develop, there was never going to be a quick answer. In my previous post, I discussed the Cochrane systematic review and meta-analysis of HPV vaccine randomized trials (Arbyn 2018). The trials could test whether the vaccination reduces HPV infection and abnormal cervical cells – which sometimes progress to invasive cancer. But they aren’t big or long enough to prove that this reduction translates into a lower rate of cervical cancer. Working out whether vaccination ultimately reduces cancer won’t just take a long time: it won’t be straightforward, either. I left the issue of tracking what’s happening at that. But the conversation after my post convinced me I should dig into this, too. First, though, a quick recap on cervical cancer and terminology. This graphic maps out the complexity of HPV infection and

Ed Rybicki’s insight:
Useful layman’s language discussion!

The HPV Vaccine Should Be Preventing Cervical Cancer: Can We Tell Whether It Actually Is?
Source: Virology News