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 When the vaccinated women were in their 20s, those who had received
the series of shots between ages 12 and 13 had cervical cancer rates
that were 87% lower than unvaccinated women who had been screened
for the malignancy.
The cancer rate was 62% lower when the shots were given between ages
14 and 16 and reduced by 34% in women vaccinated between ages 16 and
18, researchers reported in The Lancet medical journal.
Rates of a precancerous condition were reduced by 97% when the shots
were given at ages 12 and 13, the study also found.
The findings "should greatly reassure those still hesitant about the
benefits of HPV vaccination," the researchers said.
The study, funded by Cancer Research UK, looked at registry data
from January 2006 to June 2019 on women who had been screened for
cervical cancer between ages 20 and 64, including women who received
the Cervarix vaccine after it became available in 2008.
During the nearly 13-year period, roughly 28,000 diagnoses of
cervical cancer and 300,000 diagnoses of a precancerous condition
called cervical intraepithelial neoplasia (CIN3) were recorded in
England, data showed.
The young women who were vaccinated had around 450 fewer cases of
cervical cancers and 17,200 fewer cases of CIN3 than expected in
unvaccinated women of the same age.
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 "We hope that these new results
encourage uptake as the success of the
vaccination programme relies not only on the
efficacy of the vaccine but also the proportion
of the population vaccinated," said coauthor
Kate Soldan of the UK Health Security Agency.
Cervarix, developed by GSK, protects against two HPV types that are
responsible for roughly 70% to 80% of all cervical cancers.
Since September 2012, Merck & Co's quadrivalent vaccine Gardasil,
which protects against four HPV types linked to cervical and head
and neck cancers, has been used in England instead of Cervarix.
GSK also stopped selling Cervarix in the United States due low
demand with Gardasil dominating the world's most lucrative market.
Cervical cancer is rare in young women. Follow-up as women grow
older is needed to fully assess the vaccines' impact.
(Reporting by Pushkala Aripaka in Bengaluru; Editing by Nancy Lapid
and Bill Berkrot)
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