The Human Papillomaviruses (HPV) vaccine called Gardasil can protect from the infection of four types of the HPV virus. Two of these types cause up to 70 percent of all cases of cervical cancer.

Recommendations were released by the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) regarding the use of Gardasil. The FDA approved Gardasil in June 2006.

The role of ACIP is to advise the Director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) about vaccine usage and vaccine-preventable diseases.

The recommendations published by the ACIP:

• Recommended age for routine vaccination of girls is 11-12 years.
• The vaccine can be given to girls as young as 9 years.
• Catch-up vaccination is recommended for girls and women between the ages of 13 and 26 years who were not vaccinated previously or who did not complete the full vaccine series (the vaccine is administered in three separate doses).
• Routine cervical cancer screening remains important following vaccination.

The ACIP's recommendations can influence policy and practice, but are not directly linked with school and daycare entry laws. These laws are made by individual states.

There's no mystery about how we might help prevent cancer. In fact, we don't even need to venture out of our own minds to figure it all out.

Consider this.

"We estimate that more than 50 percent of cancer incidence could be prevented if we act today on what we already know," says Graham Colditz, M.D., Dr.P.H., and associate director of Prevention and Control at the Siteman Cancer Center at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis and Barnes-Jewish Hospital.

And now consider these seven methods for acting on what we already know about cancer prevention.

One. Lose weight and exercise more. It is estimated that 20 to 30 percent of the most common cancers in the United States are directly attributed to being overweight or physically inactive.

Two. Eat right. Plant-based diets help prevent cancer. Eating fruits and vegetables help prevent cancer. Diets high in red meat and animal fat increase the risk of cancer. End of story.

Three. Quit smoking. We all know smoking is associated with lung cancer, but it's also linked to cancer of the colon, kidney, pancreas, cervix, and stomach. Within five years to 10 years, there is a 50 percent reduction in cancer risk for those who stop smoking.

Four. Limit alcohol intake. While a few studies claim there are health benefits to drinking wine and other alcoholic beverages, most data show overconsumption of alcohol increases the risk of oral, esophageal, and breast cancers.

Five. Increase folate intake. Epidemiological studies suggest that low folate levels promote cancer development. Experts recommend taking a multivitamin with folate every day.

Six. Stay in the shade. Limiting long-term exposure to the sun and tanning beds, booths, and lamps minimizes the risk of developing skin cancer.

Seven. Avoid sexually transmitted diseases. Human papillomavirus (HPV) can cause cervical cancer. Hepatitis B and C viruses can cause liver cancer. Helicobacter pylori causes stomach cancer. It's critical that we protect ourselves during sexual contact if we wish to protect ourselves from cancer.

Merck, maker of the cervical cancer vaccine Gardasil, is backing off its lobbying campaign following pressure from medical groups and parents who believe the vaccine should not be mandated as a school attendance requirement for adolescent girls.

The public outcry that caused Merck to announce its stop order on Tuesday stems from the fact that the vaccine protects against the sexually transmitted human papilloma virus (HPV), which causes cervical cancer. School-mandated vaccines are typically for diseases spread through casual contact, such as measles and mumps.

Merck's medical director for vaccines, Dr. Richard M. Haupt says, "We're concerned that our role in supporting school requirements is a distraction from that goal, and as such have suspended our lobbying efforts," adding that the company will continue providing information about the vaccine upon request.

Gardasil, launched in June and the first vaccine to prevent cervical cancer, has inspired controversy since day one. There's the cost -- $360 for three required shots -- and all sorts of insurance concerns and conservative groups who worry the vaccine encourages premarital sex and interferes with parental rights. Even those in support of the vaccine -- like the American Academy of Pediatrics and the American Academy of Family Practitioners -- question Merck's quick push to market this drug, especially in light of the company's withdrawn painkiller Vioxx.

"I believe that their timing was a little bit premature so soon after (Gardasil's) release, before we have a picture of whether there are going to be any untoward side effects," says Dr. Anne Francis, who chairs an American Academy of Pediatrics committee.

Legislatures in 20 states have taken steps to mandate the vaccine for young girls. And with the exception of Texas governor Rick Perry's February 2 executive order requiring Texas girls entering the sixth grade in 2008 get vaccinated, nothing has been made official so far.

Come September 2008, 11 and 12-year-old girls in Texas entering the sixth grade will receive three shots of the Gardasil vaccine used to prevent cervical cancer.

Texas is the first state to require that young schoolgirls receive the cervical cancer vaccine, approved for use by the FDA in June and proven to protect against the most common strains of the human papilloma virus (HPV) -- the cause of most cervical cases cervical cancers.

Texas governor Rick Perry (R), who just signed an executive order making this mandate official, believes the high cost of treating diseases and ensuring the health and well-being of our population justifies the vaccine requirement.

Perry, who has been met with opposition from those concerned that HPV vaccination of young girls promotes premarital sex and interferes with parental rights, will allow parents to opt out of the vaccination requirement with documentation citing religious or philosophical reasons. But he hopes most will comply with the cervical cancer vaccine he believes is no different than immunization against diseases such as polio.

Gardasil drugmaker Merck stands to make billions if the vaccine is made mandatory across the country. The series of three necessary shots cost $360.

Perry, who received $6,000 from Merck's political action committee during his re-election campaign, has other ties to the company. His former chief of staff is one of Merck's three lobbyists in Texas, and his current chief of staff's mother-in-law is state director for Women in Government -- a group active in introducing bills across the country that affect women.

United States drug company Merck hopes to offer the cervical cancer vaccine Gardasil to developing countries at much lower prices -- within months, if possible.

Currently, the three-dose vaccine is not affordable in the developing world -- where 80 percent of cervical cancer deaths occur and 95 percent of females have never had a Pap test . And while the exact discounted price has not yet been determined, Merck professionals report they are committed to slashing the price of Gardasil for these women.

Merck also aims to help developing countries receive drugs sooner. Right now, there is a time lag of 15 to 20 years between the approval of drugs in the West and the time they reach these countries.

When Patsy Ramsey passed away from a recurrence of ovarian cancer two months ago, many felt she died under the shadow of suspicion concerning her possible involvement in the murder of her six-year-old daughter JonBenet, whose beaten and strangled body was found by her father John Ramsey in the basement of her family's home in Boulder, Colorado.

At the time of Patsy Ramsey's death, the family attorney Lin Wood said, "I think people will remember Patsy as being someone who was falsely accused in connection with the death of her daughter when she should be remembered for being an incredibly loving mother, wonderful wife, and person who showed great courage in fighting a vicious disease over the last many years."

Today, breaking news reveals that a suspect has been arrested in the murder of JonBenet. Confessing to elements of the crime, the 42-year-old American second-grade school teacher John Karr was apprehended in Thailand.

John Ramsey confirmed in a written statement that Patsy was aware of the authorities interest in the suspect and she died knowing that the case was about to be solved and the murderer of her child was about to be brought to justice. She did not leave this world not knowing.

While the effectiveness of a seaweed extract acting as a potent inhibitor of human papilloma viruses, HPV, that can lead in some cases to cervical cancer, has not been tested in any human clinical trials -- in the lab it has impressed the National Cancer Institute researchers who have been studying it.

According to researchers, carrageenan extracted from marine red algae (seaweed) showed a thousand-fold greater potency compared with other inhibitors they have tested in halting HPV.

Dr. John Schiller, senior investigator at the National Cancer Institute, who was involved in the development of the HPV vaccine, made the carrageenan discovery.

Schiller cautions that the results do not prove that carrageenan will work as a practical HPV topical microbicide. However, the positive results in the lab, together with the fact that carrageenan-based over-the-counter products are already available -- make carrageenan look even more promising to researchers in blocking the sexual transmission of HPV.

The new cervical cancer vaccine is effective for about 70 percent of the HPV viruses that can cause cervical cancer. It is also an expensive vaccine that might prove cost prohibitive for low-income women in economically distressed countries. The researchers think, if carrageenan proves as effective in human clinical trails as it has in the lab, the inexpensive carrageenan could be a significant benefit in the prevention of HPV.

One researcher, Dr. Connie Trimble, an HPV researcher at Johns Hopkins University, feels so positive about the recent advancements and discoveries in relation to cervical cancer that she said, "With all the potential tools now, we could really start to think about the end of cervical cancer. Between the vaccines and some of the prophylactics -- wouldn't that be a medical success story!"

The Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices panel voted to recommend the vaccine Gardasil -- which offers protection against the sexually transmitted human papillomavirus that can lead to cervical cancer -- be given to girls from nine years of age to young women 26 years of age. The new vaccine will be included in the federal Vaccines for Children Program, making it available for all girls regardless of medical insurance coverage or the family's ability to pay the out-of-pocket expense for the cervical cancer vaccine.

Over the past few months, The Cancer Blog has covered news and commentary regarding the new cervical cancer vaccine. Here is a sampling of some of the previous posts:

• Cancer vaccine virginity and sex: a battle first for acceptance
• Women In Government applaud FDA approval of cervical cancer vaccine
• First cervical cancer vaccine approved
• Cancer vaccine facing religious Christian-right opposition
• Cervical cancer virus and vaccine for teenage girls
• Bill and Melinda Gates: cervical cancer vaccine

Right here in Gainesville, Florida -- at the University of Florida to be exact -- the vaccine for cervical cancer is now available for college students. This vaccine -- called Gardasil -- could prevent women from contracting the human papillomavirus (HPV) which can cause cervical cancer and genital warts. Almost 30 of the more than 100 different strains of HPV are sexually transmitted -- and sometime in their lives, 50 percent of sexually active men and women will contract genital HPV infection. Many will not know they have it and will spread it unknowingly to sexual partners. Protection can come in the form of Gardasil which is approved for use in women between the ages of 9 and 26.

Women who are not sexually active are the best candidates for this vaccine because it is clear that they have not yet been infected. The vaccine is not effective for women who already are infected with HPV. And those who don't know if they are infected can determine if they have HPV through a routine Pap smear. If they do not have HPV, the vaccine is indicated. Once the vaccine is indicated, it is delivered in three separate doses over a six-month period of time. Each dose costs $120 -- which may discourage students from this option.

About 9,700 women in the United States will develop cervical cancer in 2006 and this cancer will kill 3,700 of these women. This vaccine -- if received well by young women who can afford it -- should prove a breakthrough in cancer research and prevention.

The beauty of blogs and small newspapers. If you want to read interesting reporting, take the road less traveled where writers are allowed to follow the compass to places large corporate media does not seem to venture.

In Daily News Central's FDA's Ok of Cervical Cancer Vaccine May Spawn Multibillion Dollar Market is an excellent piece explaining all the major participants and motives behind the recently approved cervical cancer vaccine. While no one expects that altruism is ever at play when it comes to business, understanding the reasoning behind the actions at least gives all the rest of us a chance to understand the brouhaha this particular cancer vaccine has, and will continue, to create.

While GlaxoSmithKline has a cervical cancer vaccine they hope will be approved and available next year, Merck is first out of the gate with the FDA approval of Gardasil. The company needs this to be a success after taking a financial hit a few years ago over its drug Vioxx, a pain pill that was widely-prescribed and later withdrawn from the market over safety concerns.

In the last year, Merck has quietly spent an estimated $1 million dollars launching the Tell Someone campaign and was connected to the Make the Connection campaign, both designed to raise a general public awareness and hopefully to ease the concerns of the evangelical Christian opposition they anticipated over a cancer vaccine so closely linked to sexual activity and teenage girls. The cancer vaccine works for girls who are virgins, who are not yet sexually active. You can see the potential for religious opposition considering their only stand on prevention in general when it comes to sex is to instruct teens not to have sex.

On June 29, immunization experts at the CDC will hold a meeting to decide if the new cervical cancer vaccine should be added to a list of mandatory vaccines administered to the youth in this country. Congress will have a vote on adding the cancer vaccine to immunization programs, and the health officials in each state will decide if the new vaccine will be required. The battle over a sexually-transmitted cancer and cancer prevention for virgins has just begun.

The international health group PATH has received an infusion of cash from Microsoft's Bill Gates to support the launch of a program that will provide the new cervical cancer vaccines to women in poor countries. With a $27.8 million grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, PATH will begin in India, Peru, Uganda and Vietnam. Of the 250,000 women who die from cervical cancer each year, most of them live in the world's poorest countries. 

The sexually-transmitted human papillomavirus, HPV, is believed to be responsible for nearly three-fourths of cervical cancer diagnosis. Two cervical cancer vaccines, Merck's Gardasil and GlaxoSmithKline's Cervarix, will become available this year to protect women from the virus. In previous posts, we wondered what would happen to women who live in poor countries and how the cancer vaccine would be made available for them. This sounds like a start.

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?

That there is an effective cervical cancer vaccine about to hit the market is encouraging news. Any successful and safe cancer prevention method is good news. Recently, a public service announcement, PSA, has been airing on television attempting to raise awareness about the virus that can lead to cervical cancer. The PSA I am seeing is coming from Merck, one of the drug companies that will be selling the vaccine. Unless I am mistaken, not once does the PSA mention the vaccine -- only the virus associated with cervical cancer. I believe this is intentional. I believe the drug company might be anticipating a resistance from the parents of teenage daughters to the vaccine based on ethical and moral grounds. If I were a drug company, I would quickly and reasonably decide to try to keep the vaccine above the fray of ethical and moral objections by promoting education about the virus.

Vaccines are a preventative measure against virus, not a treatment for after-exposure to a virus. As such, the ideal population to reach with a cervical cancer vaccine that protects against the sexually-transmitted human papilloma virus, HPV, will be teenage girls before they become sexually active. I predict it is going to be a controversial issue and debate where sexual activity of teenage girls becomes the focal point and not the potentially life-saving cancer prevention vaccine. I am betting the current awareness-raising ad campaign from the drug company in the virus link to cervical cancer is an attempt to minimize the debate with an educational approach. That's my hunch.