Vaccine 'will turn cervical cancer into a rare disease'

Cervical cancer should become a "rare disease" thanks to the introduction of the vaccine, said Professor Peter Sasieni, from Queen Mary, University of London.

Girls who have the jab when they are 12 or 13 would only need testing for the disease when they are 30 and 45, he said.

The vaccine protects against key strains of the sexually-transmitted infection human papillomavirus (HPV), which causes most cases of cervical cancer.

Prof Sasieni suggests the current smear test programme, which sees women invited for screening every three to five years, could be replaced with HPV testing.

The HPV test picks up 13 strains of the disease, which account for virtually all cervical cancer cases.

It typically takes over 10 years for a cancer to develop after HPV infection. Research shows that cancer caused by HPV types not prevented by the current vaccines take even longer.

"If you don't have one of these 13 types of HPV then your chance of getting cervical cancer in the next 10 years is really incredibly low," Prof Sasieni said. "You would capture virtually everybody with HPV testing. Vaccinated women would only need to be screened when they are 30 and 45."

Prof Sasieni said around 100,000 women should continue to be screened more regularly to ensure the vaccine continues to work for a lifetime.

Current data suggests this would be the case, he said.

In the UK, from September 2008 to Juy 2010, at least four million doses of the Cervarix jab were given.

Prof Sasieni, who presented his predictions at the National Cancer Research Institute conference in Liverpool, added: "The UK cervical screening programme has done a fantastic job in reducing cervical cancer, but it is based on an old screening test.

HPV testing could prevent an even greater proportion of cervical cancer with just half the number of screens over a lifetime.

"If HPV testing were to be rolled out from next year, it could be used nationally by 2015.

"With continued high coverage of HPV vaccination and targeting of screening resources towards unvaccinated women, cervical cancer should become a truly rare disease.

"And if the Government plan for this change now, they could save hundreds of millions of pounds in the long run."

Dr Lesley Walker, Cancer Research UK's director of cancer information, said: "HPV vaccination has been a huge step towards reducing the number of women that will be diagnosed with cervical cancer in future years. And the very high uptake of the vaccine in the UK has been a real success story."

"Around eight out of 10 sexually-active women will contract HPV at some point in their lives.

The infection clears itself up within two years in some 80 per cent of cases but women are at high risk of re-infection.

More than 2,800 women a year in the UK are diagnosed with cervical cancer and almost 1,000 die from it every year.