HPV vaccine increases the risk of developing cervical cancer
Human papillomaviruses (HPV) are a group of sexually transmitted infections, some of which can increase the risk of cervical, anal, penile, vaginal, vulvar, and oropharyngeal cancers. Vaccines against HPV became available in 2006, and as the first adolescents who received the vaccine age, the incidence of these cancers is expected to decrease. Some experts believe that cervical cancer, which is associated with HPV in more than 90 percent of cases, could be virtually eliminated in the coming decades. [...] A recent study published in Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention investigated how the cervical cancer elimination timeline might differ between high-poverty and low-poverty communities. As the first adolescents who received the HPV vaccine are only beginning to enter the age range where cervical cancer is prominent, researchers have relied on statistical modeling to predict how vaccination will impact cervical cancer incidence in the coming years. In this study, Jennifer Spencer, PhD, an assistant professor at the University of Texas at Austin, who performed this work as a research fellow at the Harvard School of Public Health, and her colleagues assembled a series of models based on current data from counties in the highest and lowest quartile of poverty in the U.S.