Interdisciplinary approach to HPV is key to early detection of undetected tumors
YLG
Involving more health care professionals in raising awareness and early detection of human papillomavirus (HPV) will help identify tumors that today appear in advanced stages. “This is everyone’s business, and it is fundamental”reminded this Wednesday Dr. Jesús de la Fuente, Coordinator of the Lower Genital Tract Pathology HPV Unit of the Infanta Leonor University Hospital (Madrid) and Secretary of the Spanish Association of Cervical Pathology and Colposcopy (Aepcc). In this sense, he mentioned that they are currently focusing on involving dentists in the fight against this virus, which approximately 80% of the population will contract at some point in their lives.
It is the most common sexually transmitted infection (STI). An estimated 660 million people worldwide are infected with the virus. The role of dentists will be key to better understanding and early detection of one of the many types of cancers caused by HPV: oropharyngeal, in which lesions are not previously detected and therefore are diagnosed when symptoms are already obvious.
About 80% of the population will become infected with human papillomavirus (HPV) at some point in their lives.
As part of International HPV Day, which is celebrated on March 4, biopharmaceutical company MSD organized a press conference in Madrid to raise awareness about HPV and its consequences. In addition, he presented the campaign ‘Let’s make it fashionable to delve deeper into preventing the spread of this virus through the #ElVPHesCosaDe Todos initiative.
“The more knowledge we have about our health, the better we can protect it, and this is what MSD is strongly committed to and what drives us to carry out awareness campaigns like this.”explained Dr. Gonzalo Fernandez, Director Medical Affairs Department of Vaccines and General Medicine MSD in Spain.
The assembled professionals agreed that the human papillomavirus does not discriminate between age and gender. Actually, HPV is estimated to cause 5% of all human tumors worldwide.. “This infection is associated with approximately 100% of anal squamous cell carcinomas, approximately 78% of vaginal cancers, 25% of vulvar cancers and approximately 90% of genital warts. But, in addition, HPV is almost entirely associated with aggregate with 100% of cervical cancer cases“, added Dr. De la Fuente.
“Cervical cancer is preventable”
Doctor Ana Santaballa, Head of the Department of Breast Cancer and Gynecological Tumors of the Medical Oncology Service of the University and Polytechnic Hospital of La Fe. Valencia, focused its intervention on one of the most common types of cancer caused by HPV: cervical cancer. However, he was frank: “The first message is that this is preventable.”. This tumor has the fourth highest incidence among women aged 15 to 44 years in Spain, is the most diagnosed and the fourth cause of cancer death in the world.
Screening programs have changed the paradigm, but they are not available to everyone. Initiatives like this are important because when the disease is detected early, most women are cured. In later stages, there are medical or surgical options. However, he recalled that in these cases, “more than 40% of women will experience a relapse.” In the worst case scenario, metastatic, Dr. Santaballa mentioned situations of “pain” and a profound impact on quality of life with an overall survival of no more than two years.
Cervical cancer is the fourth tumor with the highest incidence among women aged 15 to 44 years in Spain.
The World Health Assembly has already endorsed the Strategy to Eliminate Cervical Cancer as a Public Health Problem and considered that to eliminate the disease as a public health problem, all countries must achieve an incidence rate of less than 4 cases per 100,000 women.
Vaccination coverage over 90%
On the other side, Dr. Jaime Perez, President of the Spanish Association of Vaccinologists (AEV)highlighted that there has been “increased awareness” of HPV protection in recent years, meaning current coverage averages over 90%.
Although HPV early detection programs initially targeted mainly women, within a few years public health strategies were introduced in Spain to prevent this sexually transmitted infection also in men.
Since last year, 12-year-old boys have already benefited from systematic vaccination. But also, in 2022, the European Commission presented a recommendation to support member states in their efforts to prevent cancer through immunization.
In particular, for cervical cancer and other cancers caused by HPV, the plan targets member states to achieve an HPV vaccination rate of 90% among girls and to significantly increase vaccination for boys between now and 2030.
“Through these measures, as well as population screening and HPV elimination strategies, there will be equity in immunization from an early age and without gender disparities against the diseases that this sexually transmitted infection can cause.”ended Dr. Perez.