Protection from a Single Dose of HPV Vaccine - A major public health impact from IARC studies of vaccine efficacy

Every year cervical cancer kills nearly 350 000 women globally, 90% of whom live in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). More than 95% of cervical cancers are caused by oncogenic types of human papillomavirus (HPV).

The vaccine against HPV is very safe and highly effective in preventing cervical cancer. Thus, a fundamental pillar of the strategy to eliminate cervical cancer is reaching the goal of vaccinating 90% of girls with the HPV vaccine by the age of 15 years. However, sufficient and regular access to HPV vaccines remains a significant challenge in LMICs. Moreover, the multipledose schedule of HPV vaccination can make vaccination programmes logistically more complex, more expensive, and less resilient to vaccine supply disruptions.

The optimization of the HPV vaccination schedule is expected to improve access to the vaccine, offering countries the opportunity to expand the number of girls who can be vaccinated and alleviating the burden of the often complicated and expensive follow-up required to complete the vaccination series. It is vital that countries strengthen their HPV vaccination programmes, expedite implementation, and reverse the declines in coverage. IARC has implemented studies to accelerate cervical cancer elimination by making HPV vaccination more efficient and effective. These include (i) evaluating the efficacy of single-dose HPV vaccination, (ii) evaluating a new HPV vaccine, and (iii) making evidence-based projections of the public health impact of single-dose HPV vaccination.

Read the IARC Evidence Summary Brief No.4 here