What will it take to eradicate cervical cancer?

The University of Cincinnati Cancer Center's Thomas Herzog joined WVXU's Cincinnati Edition to discuss the importance of human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccination and pap testing for the prevention and early detection of cervical cancer.

The American Cancer Society estimates more than 13,000 new cervical cancer cases will be diagnosed in 2025, but Herzog said the majority of cases could be prevented with routine screening and recommended HPV vaccinations.

Both girls and boys are recommended to receive the HPV vaccine between the ages of 13 and 17, and in some cases vaccination can begin as early as age 10. In addition to preventing cervical cancer, HPV vaccination is associated with a decrease in certain penile, skin and head and neck cancers.

"It’s really a vaccine against cancer," said Herzog, a Cancer Center physician researcher, the Paul and Carolyn Flory Professor in Gynecologic Oncology in the UC College of Medicine and director of UC Health’s Gynecologic Cancer Disease Center. "I think the destigmatization of this vaccine is really important because really the uptake ought to be virtually 100% where they’re getting at least one shot, which has been shown to still have a pretty good effect."

Herzog noted there are pros and cons to pap testing becoming so effective through different methods. Advances have made pap testing sometimes only necessary every three to five years instead of yearly, but then people may be less likely to remember to schedule the screening if it isn't an annual occurrence.

"The pap test is a way of assuring that these early changes mediated by the high-risk HPV that persists does not ever lead to a cancer," he said. "So we can interdict or intervene with a pap smear that’s abnormal that’s actually causing changes in the cervical cells where there are precursors to developing cancer...But it’s important we have regular screening."

Listen to the WVXU segment.

Featured photo at top of HPV test form. Photo/iStock/Sefa Ozel.