destroy HPV in the world
Infections caused by the human papillomavirus (HPV) are the most common sexually transmitted diseases. It is estimated that 80% of people will be infected at some point. In most cases, this will be a transient infection that resolves spontaneously, but in a small percentage of cases it can become persistent, causing changes in cells and progressing to a tumor.
The work of three Catalan scientists, Francesc Xavier Bosch, Silvia de Sanjose and Xavier Castelsagué, played a decisive role in discovering the causal link between HPV and cervical cancer in the 1990s. Today, their successors at the Catalan Institute of Oncology (ICO) continue to serve as standard bearers of WHO’s global strategy to accelerate the elimination of cervical cancer as a public health problem.
“We are leaders in molecular epidemiology studies to understand the proportion of vulvar, vaginal, anal, penile and some types of mouth and throat cancers caused by HPV,” says Laya Alemany, head of the ICO Cancer Epidemiology Research Programme. . The center has been collecting, analyzing and disseminating HPV for more than two decades, analyzing more than 30,000 samples from around the world. Their research is used to develop vaccines, develop detection tests, and determine the HPV assistance countries should receive.
For the first time in history, a cancer was declared curable: cervical cancer
Nearly 90% of the estimated 348,874 deaths worldwide in 2022 occurred in low- and middle-income countries, where access to health services and prevention measures are difficult. The good news is that this disease is preventable. In 2020, the World Health Assembly adopted a global strategy to eliminate it, with the goal of achieving an incidence rate of less than 4 cases per 100,000 women in all countries (currently in Spain the rate is approximately 5).
“The 90-70-90 goals are set: 90% vaccination coverage of girls under 15 years of age, 70% of women screened with an HPV test before 35 years of age and again at 45 years of age, as well as 90% of women with precancerous lesions and cancer progressing treatment,” explains Laia Bruni, responsible for monitoring the WHO global plan to eliminate cervical cancer.
“There were no statistics on vaccination coverage in the world, and we developed a methodology. According to WHO, we have been collecting global vaccination statistics since 2019,” says Bruni. Starting in 2022, WHO is also using its methodology to collect screening statistics in different countries. This is fundamental data that allows you to see the needs of each country in implementing the eradication plan. “Inequality is cruel,” he notes.
Equipment in ICO laboratories
For the first time in history, cancer has been declared curable. Because, unlike other multifactorial cancers, cervical cancer is caused almost exclusively by a virus. But there is still much to be learned, says Miquel Angel Pavon, coordinator of the ICO’s Infection and Cancer Laboratory.
For example, why does the virus clear spontaneously in 80% of cases without causing symptoms? HPV research is moving toward molecular detection, and the team is working to develop devices that can test more samples with greater precision and less potential for contamination.
According to WHO, we have been collecting global vaccination statistics since 2019.”
Since the nineties, the Hospitalet de Llobregat has been a leader in the field of epidemiology and prevention of HPV. “This is our contribution to the world through the ICO,” note Bosch successors Sanjose and Castelsague. We have gone from three pioneers to a team of fifty people, including doctors, epidemiologists, microbiologists, statisticians, biotechnologists, computer scientists, statisticians, administrators… The global vanguard of the fight against human papillomavirus.
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