George Kumar, Senior Director at AstraZeneca, shared a post on LinkedIn:
“Zero Deaths. Five Years. This Is What HPV Vaccination Actually Does.
For years, we had compelling evidence that HPV vaccination prevented infection, prevented precancerous lesions, and reduced cervical cancer incidence. What we did not have – until now – was direct, population-level proof that it saves lives.
A landmark study from England just changed that.
Analyzing data from the national HPV vaccination program, researchers found dramatic reductions in cervical cancer mortality among vaccinated women aged 20 to 29. The lower bound of the 95% confidence interval for risk reduction in cervical cancer death exceeded 80% in both the 20-24 and 25-29 age groups. And in the final five years of follow-up – 2020 to 2024 – not a single death from cervical cancer was recorded among vaccinated women aged 20 to 24 in England.
Zero deaths. Over five years. In an entire country.
To appreciate the weight of this finding, it helps to understand what the literature looked like before. A systematic search using both AI tools and PubMed yielded almost nothing: one research letter on US trends in young women, two studies on incidence, and a pair of modelling papers predicting mortality benefits. No empirical evidence that vaccination actually reduced cervical cancer deaths – until now.
This study provides that evidence. It reinforces what public health advocates have long argued: achieving and maintaining high vaccination coverage in adolescent girls – particularly those aged 12 to 15, when most are still sexually inactive – is not just a cancer prevention strategy. It is a cancer mortality prevention strategy.
The biology was always there. The clinical signal was building. Now the mortality data have caught up.
HPV vaccination works. And its most important proof may be the deaths that simply no longer happen.
Figure Courtesy: The Lancet. Prof Peter Sasieni, Queen Mary University of London, London EC1M 6BQ, UK”
Title: Cervical cancer mortality trends following HPV vaccination in England, 2001–24: an analysis of population-based mortality data
Authors: Prof Peter Sasieni, Milena Falcaro.
Read the full article on The Lancet.
Other Articles Featuring George Kumar on OncoDaily.