Targeting the infectious agents behind cancers: Cervical cancer HOV vaccination
December 10, 2007
Possibly as many as a fifth of all forms of cancer are caused by chronic infections, and if vaccine and drug efforts were substantially boosted worldwide, thousands of cancers could be prevented, a leading expert is positing.
Dr. Andrew Dannenberg, director of the Cancer Center at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center in Manhattan, estimates that pathogens underlie anywhere from 15 to 20 percent of cancers affecting people globally.
Many of the infectious agents that can cause cancer are more problematic in poorer countries where vaccine technology is nonexistent and costs to purchase from abroad prohibitive.
The World Health Organization has underscored that the lack of money and poor refrigeration capacities in many underdeveloped countries makes access to the HPV vaccine difficult.
Possibly as many as a fifth of all forms of cancer are caused by chronic infections, and if vaccine and drug efforts were substantially boosted worldwide, thousands of cancers could be prevented, a leading expert is positing.
Dr. Andrew Dannenberg, director of the Cancer Center at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center in Manhattan, estimates that pathogens underlie anywhere from 15 to 20 percent of cancers affecting people globally.
Many of the infectious agents that can cause cancer are more problematic in poorer countries where vaccine technology is nonexistent and costs to purchase from abroad prohibitive.
The World Health Organization has underscored that the lack of money and poor refrigeration capacities in many underdeveloped countries makes access to the HPV vaccine difficult.
"There are about 450,000 new cases of cervical cancer each year worldwide, and more than 200,000 deaths," Dannenberg said. "We know that HPV 16 and 18 account for 70 percent of all cervical cancers and that the development of the HPV vaccine has led to an opportunity to a prevent primary infection, and prevent cervical cancer.failure to diagnosis cervical cancer
"In the United States the number of cervical cancers is small. So the use of the vaccine in this country and in Western Europe may have important benefits. But there is a pressing need to be able to provide this type of vaccine in the developing world.
"The vaccine requires refrigeration. If a significant number of lives are to be saved we need one that doesn't require refrigeration," Dannenberg said.
"Currently, you have to give three vaccinations," for the HPV vaccine to be complete, he added. "If that could be reduced to just one vaccination, that would facilitate its use in the developing world." More >>
Labels: Cervical Cancer Awareness, Cervical Cancer Research, Cervical Cancer Vaccine, Cervical Cancer. HPV
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