Unlike most cancers, cervical cancer is now considered nearly entirely preventable by a vaccine.

However, those vaccine guidelines recently changed.

I spoke with a gynecologic oncologist about the new vaccine recommendations and the medical breakthroughs that hope to one day eliminate cervical cancer altogether.

More in tonight's medical news.

Well, fortunately in the United States, thanks to things like pap smears and HPV vaccines, cervical cancer is technically a rare cancer.

But over 8000 women in the US will be diagnosed each year.

From a global perspective, though, cervical cancer is actually one of the most common malignancies.

Really?

Okay.

Well what causes cervical cancer.

So about 99% of all cervical cancers are caused by exposure to the HPV virus.

Okay.

What is that virus.

How do we get it.

How do we keep from getting it.

Well that's a great question.

So HPV stands for human papilloma virus.

And it's actually a family of viruses.

There are over 100 different strains.

Not all strains actually cause cervical cancers are pre-cancerous.

Some will cause things like common warts.

Some will cause things like genital warts.

But there are some high risk strains that will cause things like cervical cancers, vaginal cancers, and even some head and neck cancers.

But exposure to HPV is very common.

Actually, about 80% of sexually active adults have been exposed to HPV at some point in their lifetime.

That means that they have the virus in their body.

So do they know how does it how do we get rid of it?

That's a great question.

So fortunately for most of our patients, and for most people, they'll never know that they have HPV.

And actually, the body does a really great job of clearing HPV virus in a majority of people.

However, there are a subset of people that will go on to develop some of these pre cancers and cancers because of exposure to that virus.

And some people even have periods where that virus goes dormant and we can't detect it, but it can show up ten, 20, 30 years later.

So that's why it's so important to states to stay current on pap pap smears.

Unfortunately, there's little to do to prevent exposure to HPV short of being completely abstinent.

But what I always remind people is HPV, is contracted from skin to skin exposure.

So and again, it's super common.

Things that we can do to help decrease risk from those exposures would be things like getting HPV vaccines and of course staying up to date on any cervical cancer screening.

So if something's happening in someone we can detect it early when it's still a pre-cancer and we can intervene.

Okay.

And detecting HPV, the main cause for cervical cancer that involves what how do you detect it.

So there is a test for HPV itself.

It's typically done with a swab.

We actually, in our office will run it with the pap smear.

That will be part of that well, woman exam.

Correct?

It will be.

There are some changes in how the frequency of pap smear and HPV testing.

About 20 years ago, people were getting pap smears every year.

And then we found that because fortunately, HPV changes in progression of cervical cancer is a slow process that happens over years to decades.

We've actually safely been able to space the interval when people need pap smears and HPV testing to 3 to 5 years.

For most people.

Okay.

Now going back to the vaccine.

The vaccine for HPV is, for adolescents.

And, before it was two doses or sometimes three, depending on age.

But, starting this month, the CDC has now gone down to a one dose.

What are your thoughts on that.

So what I always tell people is that if we had a choice and you could only get one dose.

Great.

That does offer some protection.

However we know from the development of vaccines and the reason we have that 2 or 3 dose recommendation is because we know that depending on age, either that 2 or 3 dose series gets you far more protection than a single dose would.

Okay, this is all great information.

Doctor Vetter, thank you so much for being here.

Thank you for having me.