Young women face cancer increase

Monday November 7th, 2011

The number of young women developing cervical cancer in Britain is increasing sharply, new figures show.

Researchers found a slight increase at the beginning of the decade - with a sudden jump in cases in the last few years.

Weekend reports blamed unprotected sexual activity - although experts said increased smoking rates among young women could also be to blame.

Now campaigners are hoping the new HPV vaccination programme of teenaged girls will help reverse the trend.

At the end of the last century about 192 cases a year of the disease were diagnosed involving women in their 20s. This increased to 197 a year up to 2006.

But in 2007 and 2008 more than 300 cases a year were being detected, a major UK cancer conference was told.

In contrast, among women over the age of 50, rates of the cancer fell by nearly half.

The findings were reported to the National Cancer Research Institute conference in Liverpool.

Researcher Robert Alston, of Manchester University, said: "Our results show that although numbers getting cervical cancer are dropping in the immediate years after cervical screening began, the numbers of women in their 20s now developing the disease have been rising since the early 90s."

Hazel Nunn, of Cancer Research UK, said: “These figures show just how crucial it is for all 12-13 year-old girls to have the HPV vaccination.

"Human papilloma virus (HPV) is a very common infection and the major cause of cervical cancer."

Tags: Flu & Viruses | UK News | Women’s Health & Gynaecology

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