Peter Moore: Finally some good news

When all the media are filled with depressing news here is something wonderful.

A common cancer which used to kill about two thousand women a year in the UK could be completely wiped out. In 2023 the NHS Chief Executive Amanda Prichard made a pledge to eliminate this terrible disease. 

For most of my career the cause of cervical cancer was unknown although there were plenty of theories. We now know that all these theories were wrong. 

One idea was that it was caused by the contraceptive pill. There was some good research showing that women on the pill were more likely to develop cervical cancer, but this did not prove cause and effect.

Another observation was that it was rare in orthodox Jews and strict Muslims. Could a cervical cancer be prevented if the partner had a circumcision? 

Hindsight is easy. We should have asked what was the common factor in these observations? The answer is sex. Women on the pill were more likely to be having sex and the wives of strict orthodox Jews or Muslims were highly unlikely to be sleeping around. We now know that this cancer is triggered by a sexually transmitted virus, the Human Papilloma Virus (HPV). This does not mean that every woman with cervical cancer is promiscuous. She only needs one partner with the virus to become infected. 

The strange idea that some viruses might cause cancer is not a new idea. A link between viruses and cancer was found back in the 1930s in rabbits. This may have been a concern for Peter Rabbit and Benjamin Bunny but did it apply to humans? For years the idea was dismissed until the German virologist, Harald zur Hausen who had escaped Nazi Germany for America started further research. In Philadelphia he worked with two other Germans, Werner and Gertrude Henle who had also escaped the Nazis. Together they showed that the Epstein-Barr virus can turn heathy white cells in the blood into cancer cells. So, it was not just rabbits 

He returned to Germany in 1969 where he discovered several HPVs. In 1976 he made the controversial proposal that this virus could play a part in causing cervical cancer. Many other scientists thought this was mad until Karen Vousden found that HPV produces proteins which interfere with our natural protection against tumours Maybe his idea was not that mad. In 2008 Harald zur Hausen received the Nobel prize. 

In the 1990s Ian Frazer at the University of Queensland developed a vaccine and, in the 2000s it was given to schoolgirls. It was safe with no problems. It was an amazing success and seemed to protect against more HPV viruses than expected. 

When the vaccine first came out it was opposed by some in the church. As the HPV is sexually transmitted aren’t we encouraging sex? 

It is now given to both boys and girls at twelve. Last year, research showed that, amongst vaccinated girls there was not a single case of cervical cancer. The evidence is now overwhelming.

Despite the fact that we now have a proven way to stop a cancer the vaccination rate has fallen to just over 70%. Why refuse a treatment which is known to stop cancer? The bizarre Secretary of Health and Human Services in the US, Robert F Kennedy, has described the vaccine as “probably the most dangerous vaccine every invented”. He did graduate from Harvard with a BA in American History and went on to study law which makes him an expert in immunology and biochemistry. Other antivaxxers have predictably jumped on the bandwagon.

What is it about vaccination? Any other proven way to prevent cancer would be hailed as an amazing breakthrough. How do we overcome the nonsense propagated by these antvac people? Do you believe the scientists around the world including Nobel prize winners or   an American who studied American History. This must have been a short course as the Americans do not have much history. 

Perhaps we should reverse the propaganda. “Do you want your daughter to die unnecessarily from cervical cancer? Why not refuse the vaccine which will save her life?”.