In the United Kingdom, cases have fallen particularly in women who have received a vaccine against papillomavirus infection, according to a study published in “The Lancet”.
Le Monde
Cases of cancers of the uterus have particularly declined among British women who have received a vaccine against papillomavirus infection, at the origin of these cancers, notes A study published Wednesday, November 3rd in The Lancet .
“Our study gives the first direct evidence of the effect of vaccination against human papillomavirus [HPV], via the Cervarix bivalent vaccine, on the frequency of cervical cancer”, summarize the authors of this work.
The cancers of the cervix are almost always provoked by a sexually transmitted infection with papillomavirus. Since the mid-2000s, vaccines have existed against it.
Many countries have taken a campaign with adolescents, the idea being to receive the vaccine before being sexually active. This is the case of France, which even extended it this year to the boys, although the coverage rate remains much lower than the objectives.
Limits
So far, we knew the effectiveness of vaccines against infection itself and against the appearance of pre-cancerous lesions. But the data were less precise on the frequency of declared cancers. It is the contribution of the study of the lancet. According to its conclusions, there is a sharp reduction in cervical cancer cases in women eligible for the British vaccination campaign, launched in the late 2000s.
This decrease, measured with respect to the proportion of cases in previous generations, is particularly sensitive in women likely to have been vaccinated early, 12 or 13 years. In recent years, cervical cancers have almost disappeared.
These conclusions have limits. Even without vaccination, researchers were waiting for a limited number of cancers in this age group, which does not exceed 25 years today. They therefore emphasize that it will continue to study the frequency of cancers in the coming years.
In addition, in order to conduct a long-term follow-up, the study is only interested in women who have been able to benefit from the British campaign at its early days. However, it was at the time the Cervarix vaccine, produced by the GSK laboratory, which was used. Since then, it has been replaced by the American Gardasil Merck, says MSD out of the United States, on which the study can not make conclusions.