Research shows HPV vaccine effective in preventing cancer

In 2008, healthcare providers were pushing for young women to get the HPV vaccine to reduce their chances of developing cervical cancers, and eight years later, it seems as though it worked.

A new study from Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center in Ohio, published in the journal Clinical Infectious Diseases, shows that the prevalence of HPV in vaccinated women dropped more than 90 percent and more than 30 percent in unvaccinated women from 35 percent to just 3 percent.

"Our study demonstrates high vaccine effectiveness in a community setting, even among sexually experienced young woman who may already have been exposed to HPV," said Jessica Kahn, MD, the lead author on the study and a physician in the Division of Adolescent and Transition Medicine Cincinnati Children's, in a statement. “The substantial decrease in vaccine-type HPV was likely due to excellent HPV vaccine efficacy and high vaccination rates in this population."

In the study, the researchers examined more than 1,180 sexually experienced women in Cincinnati. They were divided into three groups: one before the vaccine was introduced, one at three years after introduction and then one at seven years.

"It will be important for us to assess effectiveness over an even longer period of time to determine whether it is sustained, but these results suggest that vaccination programs could have a substantial population-level impact on rates of HPV-related cancers," Kahn said.