Now, Danish researchers can show that the vaccine reduces the risk by up to 86 percent in women who have been vaccinated before the age of 17.
Susanne Krüger Kjær, head of research at the Danish Cancer Society and professor at Rigshospitalet’s gynecological department and the University of Copenhagen, calls the result epoch-making.
– We now show that with the vaccine we can prevent almost 90 percent of all cases of cervical cancer. That’s great good news for women, she says.
The study includes approximately 900,000 women who were 17 to 30 years old in 2006 to 2019. 40 percent of them were vaccinated before they turned 17 years old.
Among them, the risk was 86 percent lower compared to women who had not been vaccinated.
The HPV vaccine has been part of the Danish childhood vaccination program since 2009.
In addition to vaccination prevention in the youngest, women between the ages of 23 and 64 are regularly offered a cell sample that can show changes in the cervix.
The purpose of the screening is to find and treat precursors to cervical cancer before they develop into cancer.
The combination of vaccination and screening will mean that cervical cancer may be on its way to becoming an extremely rare disease in Denmark, says Susanne Krüger Kjær.
– We may not be able to eradicate it completely. But if we both vaccinate and screen, then there is a good chance that it will largely disappear, she says.
The HPV vaccine suffered a serious blow in 2015, after several girls in a documentary on TV2, among other things, came forward and told about side effects such as fatigue and dizziness after they had been vaccinated.
Before, support was around 90 percent, while in the following years it dropped sharply. Since then, several studies have rejected a connection, and this has caused support to return.
Thus, 85 percent of all girls who turned 12 in 2020 received the vaccine.
Since September 2019, boys born from 1 July 2007 have also been offered free vaccination when they turn 12 years old.
With them, the connection is almost as high.