Drug firm to introduce cervical cancer vaccine

A vaccine that would help prevent cervical cancer and is the most effective way to combat the disease, which is the second leading cause of death among women in the country, will be introduced in the market by the end of this year.

The HPV vaccine has been proven to be effective and safe and can be taken in early puberty, according to health experts.

Dr. Dianne Harper, director of the Gynaecologic Cancer Prevention Research Group, said that the results of the vaccine has so far been promising and has continued to show 100 percent protection from HPV 16 and HPV 18 infections.

The said vaccine will soon be introduced in the market by two leading research-based pharmaceutical company GlaxoSmithKline(GSK) and Merck.

GlaxoSmithKline's cervical cancer candidate vaccine has been developed to prevent infection and cervical lesions associated with the two most prevalent cancer causing types of HPV. GSK's cervical cancer candidate vaccine has shown potential to protect against infection with the third and fourth most prevalent cancer causing type of HPV.

Both younger and older women are at risk of cervical cancer due to new or subsequent infection by cancer causing types of a common virus called the Human Papilloma Virus. Of the many different types of HPV that are cancer causing, HPV types 16 and 18 together account for more than 70 percent of all cervical cancer cases globally.

In Asia Pacific, an estimated 266,000 cases of cervical cancer are diagnosed each year with approximately 143,000 dying from the disease. Worldwide, there are an estimated 500,000 reported cervical cancer cases each year with more than 80 percent in the developing countries. Recent predictions of the expected number of cases in 2020 notable in developing countries suggest a burden of over 700,000 new cases per year - an increase of 40 percent over the current estimate.

In the Philippines, cervical cancer is the second most common cancer among females wherein about two thirds of cervical cancer cases in the country are diagnosed in the advanced stage where mortality is high.

HPV is easily transmitted through sexual activity, which include extragenital transmission (skin to skin ) and vertical transmission, which is passed from mother to child during delivery.

This means that cervical cancer can also be present to women who have not yet been in any sexual activity. - Jasmin R. Uy