Q: I have a 12-year-old daughter and at the end of a routine office visit to her pediatrician last week, the doctor talked to me about giving her a vaccine that has supposedly been shown recentl y to completely prevent cervical cancer, but I told the doctor that I would have to think about it.
Several of my friends have daughters in this same age range and have apparently received similar recommendations. They have been reluctant to do it for various reasons, but mainly because they don’t think it has been studied enough to make sure there are no adverse effects. Is there any recent data to support giving this vaccine?
A: The vaccine your doctor referred to is called Gardasil, and it causes the body to make antibodies against Human Papilloma Virus (HPV), several subtypes of which have been shown to be the root cause of essentially all of the eight different types cervical cancer in women. The protection only works if the vaccine is given before the onset of sexual activity, hence the recommendation that it be started at ages 12-13 years.
A full course consists of three injections, with the second given two months after the first, and the third given six months after the first.
Cervical cancer is now the most common cancer in women between the ages of 25 and 35. In an article from Scotland, published recently in the prestigious Journal of the United States National Cancer Institute, thousands of young women, who had received the HPV vaccine course starting when they were 12-13 years of age, were carefully screened for the precursors of cervical cancer (the presence of microscopic changes in cells of the uterine cervix, caused by the HPV virus).
The number of women found positive for these changes was precisely zero, with absolutely no evidence of adverse effects from the vaccine, prompting the Scottish health authorities to make the vaccine a standard recommendation for any girl in this age range.
Most insurances now cover it in the same way they cover vaccines against measles, mumps, and polio. When my young patients’ parents ask me why it is important to have this immunization given to their daughter(s), I point out to them that this is one of those rare opportunities to do your daughter the biggest favor any parent can do, which is help prevent her from being maimed or killed in the future by a completely avoidable cancer. Both of my daughters received this vaccine, as have the daughters of all of my siblings.
To learn more about this and many other health topics, visit the American Academy of Family Physicians’ website familydoctor.org, where you can click on the Search box in the upper right corner of the website, and enter your topic of interest.
I want to thank Sara B. for this question. If you have a particular topic you would like to hear more about, please message me at paulmdake@gmail. com.
Dr. Paul Dake, a Newberry native, is a retired family physician. He lives in Pinconning, Michigan.