Cervical cancer vaccine targets older women
August 14, 2007
A RIVAL to the cervical cancer vaccine Gardasil has hit Australian markets, this time targeting women in their 30s and 40s.
Cervarix will be used to protect women aged 27 to 45 who are not covered by the free immunisations with Gardasil now available to girls and younger women.
However, the Cervarix jabs will cost $150 and the jury is still out on how much older women will benefit from getting vaccinated.
Gardasil and Cervarix – both based on research by 2006 Australian of the Year Professor Ian Frazer – claim to protect against 70 per cent of cervical cancers caused by the sexually-transmitted human papilloma virus (HPV).
Gardasil is only registered for use in younger women, but Cervarix trials indicate it works for women aged up to 45.
Dr Rachel Skinner, a principal investigator for Cervarix studies with the Vaccine Trials Group of the Telethon Institute, said while older women were more likely to have already been exposed to different types of HPV, they can still benefit.
“A woman may not have been exposed to the HPV types most commonly associated with cervical cancer, HPV 16 or HPV 18, in which case vaccination may protect her from the development of cervical abnormalities or cervical cancer,” Dr Skinner said.
She said an abnormal pap smear did not necessarily mean it was too late to be protected.
Prof Frazer today welcomed the availability of the second vaccine to help in the battle against cervical cancer, which affects about 700 women through new infections each year.
“Vaccination, together with regular pap smears, will be a woman’s best defence against cervical cancer in the future,” Prof Frazer said.
GSK has applied to the Pharmaceutical Benefits Advisory Council (PBAC) for the drug to be included on the national immunisation list. However, until it does it will cost $150 for a course of three injections.
Meanwhile, a GSK-funded survey of 5000 women released today showed that only 53 per cent had heard of HPV.
And 32 per cent of this group mistakenly thought it was associated with ovarian cancer, not cervical cancer. Older women had the poorest knowledge.
The survey also showed that one in four women mistakenly believed an abnormal pap smear result automatically indicated cervical cancer.