By Micheál Rourke, Data Analyst, National Screening Service
We’ve published new research showing the early signs of the positive protective effect of HPV vaccination in women at the time of their first cervical screening test.
Why we did the research
We wanted to find out if the HPV vaccine had an effect on the presence of moderate to severe abnormal cervical cells in 25-year-old women who had been vaccinated for HPV as part of the school vaccination programme.
Cervical cancer remains one of the most common cancers and causes of cancer-related deaths among women globally. Over 90% of cervical cancers are caused by persistent infection with HPV (the human papillomavirus). 90% of women and men will contract HPV in their lifetime.
The HPV vaccination programme in Ireland was rolled out through schools from 2010 for girls aged 12 to 13 years in first year of secondary school and the same aged girls in non-secondary schools (special schools and home schools). A 3-year catch-up HPV vaccination programme started in 2011/2012 for girls aged 17 to 18 years in sixth year of secondary school and in non-secondary schools.
Girls vaccinated through this catch-up vaccination programme became eligible for cervical screening from 2019 at age 25.
How we did it
We plotted anonymised data from CervicalCheck against vaccination rates from the National Immunisation Office at the time these women were offered vaccination.
What we found
We found a big drop in the percentage of cervical screening tests showing serious precancer disease in women aged 25, from 3.7% (2015 to 2018) to 1.5% (2019 to 2022).
What this tells us
This study provides early evidence of the impact of HPV vaccination on cervical disease in Ireland. We are seeing early signs of the positive protective effect of HPV vaccination in women attending their first cervical screening. As more vaccinated women enter the CervicalCheck screening programme, we expect a greater impact on moderate to severe cervical disease.
Plans are in progress in Ireland to incorporate individual-level vaccination data from the National Immunisation Office with the CervicalCheck screening database which will allow a more detailed assessment of the impact of HPV vaccination on cervical disease in the screening population in the future.
Cervical Cancer Elimination
The research adds to the growing international evidence that a combination of screening and HPV vaccination can lead to cervical cancer elimination.
- ‘The effect of HPV vaccination on the rate of high-grade cytology in 25-year-old women attending cervical screening in Ireland’ is published in the Irish Journal of Medical Science.
- Poster presentation presented at the BSCCP Annual Scientific Meeting in Birmingham in April 2023.
- Ireland’s roadmap to Cervical Cancer Elimination: Ireland announced its commitment to the WHO Cervical Cancer Elimination initiative in January 2023, during Cervical Cancer Prevention Week, and published a roadmap to eliminate cervical cancer as a public health problem. The National Screening Service is working in partnership with the National Immunisation Office, the National Cancer Control Programme and the National Cancer Registry Ireland to progress the WHO global targets. A wider strategic group is overseeing the work with input from patient advocacy representatives. Ireland will announce its target date for elimination on 17 November 2023 – the Day of Action for Cervical Cancer Elimination.