The human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine prevented cervical cancer deaths in women aged 20 to 24 in England from 2020 to 2024, according to a paper published last week in The Lancet. It’s the first study to show that HPV vaccination is associated with a reduced chance of dying from cervical cancer. 

“The findings support the achievability of the WHO [World Health Organization] goal of eliminating cervical cancer as a public health problem, and efforts should be made to achieve high vaccine uptake among young adolescents globally,” the study authors wrote. 

Vaccine effectiveness against death unlikely to be 100%

Since September 2008, England has offered HPV vaccination in schools for girls ages 12 to 13. Initially, officials also extended HPV vaccination to girls 14 to 18 years to help them catch up. In 2019, the program expanded to provide HPV vaccination to boys. 

At the greatest coverage level, about 90% of girls received at least one dose of the vaccine prior to the COVID-19 pandemic. That led to an 87% reduction in cervical cancer diagnoses in girls vaccinated before they turned 16. 

The study’s findings provide compelling evidence that HPV vaccination is a highly effective cancer prevention strategy.

Women aged 20 to 24 who qualified for HPV vaccination from age 12 to 18 saw their risk of cervical cancer dip by 80% from 2015 to 2019. From 2020 to 2024, the last five years with data available, the researchers found no deaths from cervical cancer in women aged 20 to 24, although they suspect that a few deaths were missed in the data. 

“HPV vaccination effectiveness against cervical cancer mortality is unlikely to be 100%, but it is likely that the small risk in vaccinated women is compensated by a reduction of risk in unvaccinated women thanks to herd protection,” the authors wrote. 

For slightly older women, ages 25 to 29, who also were vaccinated from age 12 to 18, cervical cancer mortality dropped 69% from 2020 to 2024. 

‘Highly effective cancer prevention strategy’ 

In an accompanying commentary, Allison Portnoy, ScD, MSPH, of Boston University, and Emily Berger, PhD, of Harvard, who were not involved in the study, called the results of the research “striking.” They noted that HPV vaccination remains important in  reducing cervical cancer.  

“The study’s findings provide compelling evidence that HPV vaccination is a highly effective cancer prevention strategy,” they wrote. “The near-complete protective effect of HPV vaccination on cervical cancer mortality among women vaccinated as ages 12-13 years not only supports sustained investment in routine adolescent vaccination program but also reinforces the importance of vaccinating in early adolescence before HPV exposure.” 

They also stressed the need for ongoing study of these groups to see if the vaccine’s protections are maintained. 

“Because vaccinated cohorts are still relatively young, continued and longer-term follow-up will be important to assess whether these reductions persist into older ages when cervical cancer mortality risk is higher and when different HPV genotypes might contribute to the burden differential by age,” they wrote.