We can now see the opening act of yet another sophisticated sensitive topic ask your doctor advertising campaign on the evening news. This one begins with a well-dressed, hip young woman who reflects, while contemplating the middle distance: "There's a common virus that can cause cancer? I didn't know that!"According to studies, cervical cancer ranks eighth in cancer incidence among women in the U.S. Increased use of Pap tests, HPV tests and improved treatments and diagnostics have lowered that ranking. But cervical cancer still ranks second among women living in developing countries.
"Increasingly, cervical cancer will become a disease of poor women who have limited or no access to basic health care," states Ben Daitz, a physician and professor at the University of New Mexico School of Medicine. If the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) rules as expected on a new vaccine next month, cancer of the cervix could be the first cancer ever to be prevented by a vaccine.
Last week, an FDA advisory board unanimously endorsed the vaccine, which protects against infection with human papillomavirus or HPV. HPV has been demonstrated to be the most common sexually transmitted disease in the world and the cause of almost all cervical cancers. The present cost of screening-prevention methods like Pap smears and colposcopy approaches $6 billion a year. Those costs will continue in addition to the vaccine expense. Who will pay for cervical cancer prevention for the neediest women and girls and who will educate them about HPV?
