Researcher: Cervical cancer could be eradicated in 50 years

A leading researcher says cervical cancer could be eradicated within five decades with vaccines currently in use and development.

Professor Jack Cuzik, from Cancer Research UK, said currently available vaccines can protect women from three-quarters of cervical cancers. The vaccines protect women from the two strains of human papillomavirus (HPV) that cause cervical cancer.

Cuzik says that the vaccines in development will also protect women from the other seven strains of HPV, effectively eliminating cervical cancer in 50 years.

Cuzik, an expert in cervical cancer screening, also argues that the vaccines should be used in conjunction with HPV screening.

the cause of cancer

He says that the virus is the cause of all cervical cancer. If HPV is killed by the vaccines, the cancer that HPV causes will also go away.

Cuzick also issues a warning, warning that medical errors associated with the use of the Pap test are likely to increase. He says that the Pap test misses one-third to one-half of high-grade lesions.

A 2009 report in the New England Journal of Medicine shows that a test for HPV infection is better than the Pap test at detecting cervical cancer early.

According to the study, the HPV test is more effective because it requires fewer visits to the doctor and is less expensive and takes less time. The HPV test looks for the sexually transmitted virus that causes the cancer, rather than looking for cancer cells or abnormal cells like the Pap test does.

a deadly disease

It is estimated that up to 20 million Americans have HPV. In 2009, 11,000 women were diagnosed with cervical cancer and 4,000 died from it.

While Pap tests have greatly improved doctors’ ability to detect cancer cells, their time is coming to an end. Even her advocates admit that she has an irreducible error rate that sometimes gives false positives (indicating that a healthy woman has cancer) and false negatives (indicating that a woman with cancer is healthy).

False negatives are, of course, the most dangerous. A woman is sent from a clinic or doctor’s office thinking she is healthy, when in fact, she often needs immediate treatment that can often successfully fight cancer in her cervix.

A false negative can be devastating

Arnette Zapel knows exactly how damaging a false negative Pap test can be. The Tennessee woman was tested in 2004; Unfortunately, the technicians were unable to detect her cervical cancer.

Because doctors didn’t find the cancer until later, he had to undergo much more rigorous efforts to fight it, including surgery, radiation, and chemotherapy.

Last year, Zapel and her husband received $5.5 million in their successful lawsuit against the pathology lab that failed to detect her cancer. The lab admitted fault in pre-trial proceedings; the Nashville trial focused solely on compensatory damages owed to Zapel.

If you have suffered due to a cervical cancer misdiagnosis, contact a Pennsylvania medical malpractice attorney who can evaluate the facts and determine if you have a case. A medical malpractice attorney understands this complicated area of ​​the law and works to protect you, your health, and your financial well-being.