News > February 28, 2008

By CeCe Brooks | Life editor

Every few years we reach a milestone age. These are not Sweet 16 or the oh-so-important 21, but the ages when we require yet another immunization. When we’re babies it’s for the mumps, rubella, etc. When we’re in puberty it is the hepatitis B shot.

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Now there is another one to add to the list for young women, and possibly young men, in the future.

“I wanna be one less, one less.” This is the jingle that has been ingrained into our brains from the Gardasil immunization commercials. The problem with making a catchy tune or phrase for a serious topic is that people forget the real issue that’s behind the jingle.

You can joke all you want about how you want to be one less, but in all seriousness you really should.

The Facts

For those who do not know anything about HPV or cervical cancer beyond the commercial, here is the basic information. Human papillomavirus (HPV) is a virus caused by skin-to-skin contact that can cause either warts or precancerous lesions. Cervical cancer is as its name would imply cancer in the cervix, but what many people do not know is that more than 99% of cervical cancer cases stem from cases of HPV.

Cervical cancer used to be the leading cause of death for women, but now it makes up less than 2% of female deaths.

The Problem

The statistics could be seen as a reason not to worry about cervical cancer, but with increased sexual activity in young people and therefore an increased risk for HPV, cervical cancer should not be forgotten.

This low death rate will only stay true if women continue to get regular exams. “Once the virus is integrated there is nothing else one can do except regular pap smears. Because cervical cancer has a long pre-clinical base, it takes a long time for HPV infections to become invasive cancer, so if those people have regular exams then hopefully it’s going to be picked up when it’s just a pre-cancerous lesion.

“Since pap smear screening started in the United states the incidences of invasive cervical cancer has decreased a significant amount. Nowadays only about 10,000 women are diagnosed with invasive cervical cancer a year but about 500,000 are treated for pre-cancerous lesions” head of gynecologic oncology at Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center, Dr. Brigitte Miller said.

Prevention

Before regular exams are even necessary, women can get the Gardasil shot to prevent HPV (not cancer despite its tagline as the world’s first cancer vaccine) and therefore most likely prevent cervical cancer. Although Gardasil has been criticized because of its lack of research in long-term effects and supposed rush through FDA approval, most doctors recommend young women to get the shot.

The need to get the shot at a young age is very important because the immunization only works if the person has not come in contact with a strain of HPV.

The issue also relates to socioeconomic status seeing that all of the most efficient ways to prevent HPV and cervical cancer are either expensive or require sufficient medical insurance. This is the main reason behind the fact that Hispanic women have a much higher rate of contracting cervical cancer and African-American women have a much higher rate of dying from cervical cancer than Caucasian women.

Men

Because of the recent push by the medical community to get all young women vaccinated for HPV to prevent cervical cancer, many people believe that HPV is only an important issue for women. The advertisement of Gardasil as an immunization shot is largely to blame for this. Young men feel that since they cannot contract cervical cancer that Gardasil is not useful for them. This is simply untrue. First, HPV can strike men and women alike, so to suppress the spread of HPV, men should be vaccinated for the virus as well.

“I think all boys should get [the immunization shot] because if you want to eradicate a disease completely, you need to vaccinate everyone. Although men don’t have many disease problems,” Miller said. “They have some and of course they can spread it.”

Additionally, recent studies have shown that men are also at risk for cancer through HPV. Because of increased oral sex, men have been shown to contract oral cancers by way of HPV. In fact, recent surveys have shown that in the close future HPV will be the leading cause of oral cancers, pushing ahead of the commonly acknowledged tobacco use.

Why It’s Important

With so much increased technology that has expanded life expectancy and eradicated diseases, many of us forget that many new medical problems are arising as others fall away. Yes, cervical cancer is not as much of a threat today as in the past, but now that we know the major cause behind it and how to prevent it, we should.