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Medicine Australia Science

Australia Set To 'Eliminate' Cervical Cancer By 2028 (cnn.com) 181

An anonymous reader quotes a report from CNN: Australia is set to be the first country to eliminate cervical cancer, aided by its national vaccination and screening programs, says a new study. The country is on track to meet the threshold of four or less new cases per 100,000 women each year, effectively eliminating the cancer by 2028, finds the new study published Wednesday. The cancer could be classified as "rare" as early as 2022, meeting a threshold of six new cases per 100,000 and deaths due to the diseases are expected to decline to one new case per 100,000 women by 2034. But this is all contingent on Australia's high vaccination coverage and screening being maintained, write the study authors.

An estimated 99.7% of cervical cancer cases are caused by infection with Human Papillomavirus (HPV), a group of viruses that spread though sexual intercourse and skin-to-skin contact around the genitals. In their new study, the researchers at Cancer Council NSW modeled data on HPV vaccination, natural history of the disease, and cervical screening to estimate the age-incidence of cervical cancer in Australia from 2015 to 2100. Currently, Australia reports seven cases of cervical cancer per 100,000 women, according to the study. As well as eliminating the disease within 20 years, the data showed that the annual incidence of cervical cancer will decrease and remain at fewer than one case per 100,000 women if screening for HPV every five years continues and as long as people have been offered the vaccine.

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Australia Set To 'Eliminate' Cervical Cancer By 2028

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  • by surfcow ( 169572 ) on Wednesday October 03, 2018 @11:57PM (#57422674) Homepage

    HPV is a virus - that causes cancer.
    A cancer virus.

    Yes, HPV causes cancer of the cervix, vulva, and vagina.
    But also cancers of the penis, throat, mouth, anus, prostate.
    Men get HPV cancers too.
    Penetrative sex is not required.

    So HPV is a virus - that causes cancer - of the sex organs.

    I wish they called it "Sex organ cancer virus."

    Unlike ALL the other cancers, these cancers can be prevented with a single vaccine.

    A cancer vaccine.

    We are sexually active, and we both received the Gardasil-9 series.
    Our insurance (KP) would NOT cover it. Said we were too old.
    We went to Costco and paid out of pocket
    3 shots in the series, about $220 each.

    I hear cancer is expensive too.

  • When the first vaccines were brought to market, there seemed to be a lot of questions surrounding the topic. It wasn't all that sure whether the presence of the HP virus was circumstancial... you know correlation versus causation. AND the vaccines seemed to sometimes have dire side-effects.

    Does anyone know where science is standing on this topic? And I don't mean pharma. I mean science ;).

  • by Luckyo ( 1726890 ) on Thursday October 04, 2018 @07:56AM (#57423956)

    Literally, topic. You cannot eliminate certain type of cancer by eliminating one of the risk factors. The claim is patently absurd.

    • by AmiMoJo ( 196126 ) on Thursday October 04, 2018 @08:43AM (#57424200) Homepage Journal

      According to Wikipeida around 85% of cervical cancer has this cause. Of course that's globally, in Australia it will be different due to different lifestyles. Other risk factors include smoking and multiple pregnancies, both declining in Aus. So their claim that at some point cervical cancer will be effectively eliminated (instances below some very low threshold) is credible.

      • by Luckyo ( 1726890 )

        Thank you for conceding the point for the OP.

        The only thing to add is that while the pathway from HPV infection to cervical cancer is well understood, not even scientists behind it try to suggest that HPV is the sole factor even in 85% of cases where they found the virus in people with cancer.

        Let me repeat that, since you clearly didn't read my actual statement. 85% is not the causal link. It's the correlation of people who have cervical cancer who were tested for HPV. And even if you were to make this assu

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