For women under 25, cervical cancer mortality decreased 15.2% per year during 2013-2015 and 2019-2021, according to a study published Nov. 27 in JAMA.
Researchers from Charleston-based Medical University of South Carolina and Rockville, Md.-based National Cancer Institute analyzed National Center for Health Statistics data for the study. Cervical cancer mortality rates from 1992 to 2021 for women under 25 were calculated as deaths per 100,000 persons.
Here are eight things to know from the study:
- HPV vaccination has been included in routine vaccine recommendations for U.S. women since 2006.
- Among women under 25, cervical cancer incidence fell 65% between 2012 and 2019.
- Cervical cancer mortality decreased 3.7% per year during 1992 to 1994 and 2013 to 2015.
- Cervical cancer mortality decreased 15.2% per year during 2013 to 2015 and 2019 to 2021.
- The number of cervical cancer deaths decreased over the study time period from 55 per 100,000 between 1992 and 1994 to 35 per 100,000 between 2013 and 2015 and 13 per 100,000 during 2019 to 2021.
- If the mortality rates from 1992 to 1994 and 2013 to 2015 had continued, 26 per 100,000 cervical cancer deaths would have been expected to occur between 2016 and 2021.
- "The findings from this study in the context of other published research suggest that HPV vaccination affected the sequential decline in HPV infection prevalence, cervical cancer incidence and cervical cancer mortality," the authors of the study wrote.
- Since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, HPV vaccination coverage has decreased from 79.3% in 2022 to 75.9% in 2023.
Read the full study here.