Latest news with #HPV
South China Morning Post
16 hours ago
- Health
- South China Morning Post
Hong Kong trio to tackle 300km row from Ibiza to Barcelona in cancer charity fundraiser
Three Hong Kong residents will attempt to row more than 300 kilometres from Ibiza to Barcelona next week, a journey they expect will leave them battling the Mediterranean Sea for five days. Members of the Royal Hong Kong Yacht Club (RHKYC), Alastair Kelly, Doug Irwin and Andi Buel, will take on the Noman Mediterranean Ocean Rowing Races, a challenge that aims to raise awareness and funds to combat HPV-related cancers. A prerequisite for the event, also known as Row to End HPV, is that teams raise funds for Noman, a charity combating HPV-related cancers, and the Hong Kong trio have already collected more than HK$80,000. 'It's a great cause and I think the actual nature of the campaign, vaccinating girls and boys against HPV, is going to serve the Hong Kong community and the wider global community,' 41-year-old Kelly said. HPV, Human Papillomavirus, is the causal agent of 5 per cent of cancers, and infection can be safeguarded against through vaccinations. Three Hong Kong residents will attempt to row more than 300 kilometres from Ibiza to Barcelona next week. Photo: Tomoaki Katsuba In June, the Hong Kong government began its third and final dose of free vaccinations for female residents born between 2004 and 2008 to combat cervical cancer, which claimed 167 lives in the city in 2022.
The Hindu
21 hours ago
- Health
- The Hindu
Free HPV vaccination drive for girls in August
Visakhapatnam South MLA Vamsi Krishna Srinivas has urged parents to get their daughters aged 9 to 14 years vaccinated to prevent cervical cancer. A free HPV vaccine drive will be conducted for the students of the Government Queen Mary's High School, aged nine to 14 years, in August. The Lions Club of Vizag Charitable Trust and Chaitanya Sravanthi, with the funds from Visakhapatnam Port Authority (VPA), will organise the vaccination drive. Participating in an awareness camp organised for the parents at Queen Mary's High School on Thursday, Mr. Vamsi Krishna Srinivas said vaccination was the only way to prevent cervical cancer. Chaitanya Sravanthi president Shirin Rahman said the VPA was sponsoring the vaccination drive. The first dose would be administered in August, while the second dose would be given in February, 2026. Dr. I Vani, Superintendent, King George Hospital (KGH), said that vaccination of girls in the target age group was necessary to prevent cervical cancer. She said that pap smear tests were being conducted at KGH for the early detection of cervical cancer. Lions Cancer and General Hospital managing trustee V. Uma Maheswar Rao said awareness camps were being organised in rural and urban areas, particularly in slums. Dr. Sarojini, a retired DM&HO also spoke. GVMC corporator Sadiq, Queen Mary's School Head Master C.S.R. Varma, Lions Club of Vizag Charitable Trust secretary Ravichandra and treasurer Harinadh Chowdary were present.
Hindustan Times
a day ago
- Health
- Hindustan Times
The world is winning the war on cancer
IN 1971 RICHARD NIXON, then America's president, announced a 'war on cancer'. Just two years earlier the Apollo programme had combined big science and big government to put astronauts on the Moon, so hopes were high. Some optimistic doctors talked of a cure for cancer within a few years. They were wrong. Today every adult has had cancer, knows someone who has, or both. Half of men and a third of women in rich countries can expect to suffer from it at some point in their lives. In America, where it is the second-most-common cause of death, just behind heart disease, it kills around 600,000 people a year. Worldwide, it is responsible for about one in six of all deaths. If your criterion for success was a cure within a decade—or even two or three or four—then you might conclude that the war on cancer has been lost. In fact, things are better than many realise. The progress is plain from the data and there is every reason to think it will continue. Cancer is related to age. If you strip out longer lifespans, it becomes clear that in the rich world the early 1990s were an inflection point. Since then, the age-adjusted death rate has been falling, slowly but steadily, year after year. In America the rate is now about a third lower than in the 1990s. The trend is similar in other developed countries. What some scientists hoped would be a blitzkrieg has turned out to be a steady but successful war of attrition. Some victories have been spectacular. Childhood leukaemia used to be virtually a death sentence; now it has a five-year survival rate above 90%. Yet because cancer is not one illness, but a whole category, much of the progress has come not from big breakthroughs, but thousands of smaller advances in screening, surgery and drugs. Future gains will come from three main sources. Some will come by applying lessons from the rich world all across the globe. The overlooked success story in the fight against cancer has been prevention—perhaps because cancers that never happen are less visible than those that are cured. For example, smoking rates have plummeted in rich countries. That has probably prevented more than 3m cancer deaths since 1975 in America alone. Because smoking still causes one in five cancer deaths around the world, anti-tobacco drives in poor and middle-income countries, where smoking remains common, stand to do an enormous amount of good. Another source of progress will be cheaper medicines and extra wealth to pay for them. Cervical cancer is one of the most common cancers in women. Almost all cases are the delayed side-effect of infection with the human papillomavirus (HPV), a bug. In 2008 Britain began offering a newly developed HPV vaccine to teenage girls. A decade and a half later, rates of cervical cancer among women in their 20s are down by 90%, and British health officials talk of virtually eradicating cervical cancer by 2040. The original HPV vaccine was relatively expensive. But a cheaper version developed in India now underpins a mass-vaccination campaign in that country, too. And the last source of progress will be the clinical application of fresh science. This comes in two steps: identifying who is most at risk of developing a cancer, and then finding ways to stop the disease in its tracks. As we report this week, both hold promise. Scientists already know of genetic variants that predispose their carriers to certain kinds of cancer, such as a faulty BRCA-1 gene that raises the risk of breast or prostate cancer. However, less than half of all cancer patients have a known risk factor. Similarly, only some pre-cancerous cells turn malignant. For example, bowel cancers tend to emerge from polyps, but only 5-10% of polyps become cancerous. The aim is to untangle this confusion in order to identify patients very early, when treatment is most effective. That work draws on huge biobanks of tissue samples and on the ability to watch genes switch on and off in living cells—impossible even a decade ago. Armed with new biomarkers in blood or breath and a deeper understanding of how combinations of genes and environmental exposure predispose people to develop cancers, physicians can target those who would benefit from treatment. That is important to prevent people undergoing needless surgery, chemo- and radiation therapy, at vast expense and with severe side-effects. Having worked out whom to treat, doctors can make use of an expanding arsenal of therapies. Some cheap drugs seem to act as cancer prophylactics. Aspirin, a painkiller, seems to cut the risk of bowel cancer in half when given to those with Lynch syndrome, a genetic disorder that predisposes sufferers to some types of cancer. Metformin, a cheap diabetes drug, cuts the risk of recurrence in women who have been treated for a particular type of breast cancer. GLP-1 receptor agonists such as Ozempic show promise, too. Alongside the mainstays of surgery, chemotherapy and radiotherapy a new technique is emerging that harnesses the power of the immune system. The idea is to boost the body's own ability to attack cancerous cells. Some vaccines—perhaps genetically tailored to individual patients—can target a cancer that is already established. Others, acting more like broad vaccines used against diseases such as the flu, could target pre-cancerous cells. Vaccines of this sort for breast and colon cancer are in clinical trials. Bucking onco Good news often goes unreported, especially if it happens gradually. That is the story of the war on cancer. Not everything is perfect: treatments are costly, drug firms worry about being sued for side-effects when treating people for diseases they do not yet have, and the Trump administration is planning steep cuts to the National Cancer Institute—setting back the science and putting off a generation of researchers. But costs will fall, treatments will find their way to market and work goes on in Europe and China, which this year overtook America as the main source of cancer research. That is why the age-adjusted death rate will continue falling, year after year. For subscribers only: to see how we design each week's cover, sign up to our weekly Cover Story newsletter.
&w=3840&q=100)
First Post
a day ago
- Health
- First Post
War against cancer: A victory in progress as death rates tumble with new drugs, screening and prevention
The chances of getting affected by cancer increase as people age. Since the 1990s, the age-adjusted death rate related to cancer has fallen considerably read more The fight against cancer has been yielding results slowly and steadily. Data on cancer's manifestations and treatment has painted a positive picture. Could that mean that the world is inching closer to a cure? While an answer to that remains uncertain, other factors, like death rates and advanced medical treatment, suggest that things are looking better than they were a decade ago. Here's how: Falling death rates The chances of getting affected by cancer increase as people age. Since the 1990s, the age-adjusted death rate related to cancer has fallen considerably. For example, in the US, where cancer is the second-most common cause of death, the age-adjusted death rate is now a third lower than in the 1990s. This trend is not exclusive to America, but is mimicked by other developed countries as well. A 2024 report by the Nation on the Status of Cancer shows that overall death rates from cancer declined steadily among both men and women from 2001 through 2022, even during the first two years of the Covid-19 pandemic. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD Childhood leukaemia survival rates go up The survival rate of childhood leukaemia has increased significantly in the past few years. Now, it has a five-year survival rate above 90 per cent. This has been made possible by advancements in treatment measures for Acute Lymphoblastic Leukaemia (ALL), which is the most common type that affects children. Better prevention One of the most overlooked success stories in the fight against cancer is prevention. For instance, smoking rates have dropped sharply in high-income countries, likely preventing over 3 million cancer deaths in the US alone since 1975. Yet smoking still accounts for one in five cancer deaths globally. This means that anti-tobacco efforts in low- and middle-income countries, where smoking remains widespread, have the potential to save millions more lives. Cheaper treatment Cancer treatment has gone easy on the pockets considerably. Curbing the spread of cervical cancer, the most common cancer among women, is a case in point. Cervical cancer is caused by the delayed side-effect of infection with the human papillomavirus (HPV). Now, the prevalence of the HPV vaccine and its administration to young girls across the world has brought down the chances of getting the bug at all. In the UK, for example, HPV vaccines have brought down the rates of cervical cancer among women in their 20s are down by 90 per cent.
Medscape
a day ago
- Health
- Medscape
Dermatomyositis: Imaging Key to Detect Head and Neck Cancer
TOPLINE: Head and neck cancer (HNC) occurred in a small but distinct subgroup of patients with dermatomyositis (DM), in a retrospective study that also found that most cases presented with myositis and neck masses. METHODOLOGY: To characterize patients with DM who developed HNC living in a region not endemic for Epstein-Barr virus (EBV), researchers conducted a retrospective cohort study of 590 patients with DM (76% women; 81% White individuals) using the Research Patient Data Registry at Mass General Brigham from 1979 to 2024. Patients had at least 3 years of clinical follow-up post-DM diagnosis. Researchers identified cancer-associated DM and HNC. TAKEAWAY: Of the 126 patients (21%) with cancer, 6% had HNC, all were male and were predominantly White (86%). Squamous cell carcinoma comprised 86% of cases. Five of the tested patients with HNC were human papillomavirus (HPV)-positive. One patient from an EBV-endemic area tested positive for EBV (which has been linked to an increased risk for HNC, including nasopharyngeal carcinoma). Most patients with HNC (86%) had myositis at presentation, and 83% showed cancer-associated symptoms at the onset of DM, most commonly a neck mass. The mean interval from a DM diagnosis to a cancer diagnosis was 20 months. Lymph node involvement was present in all HNC cases, and traditional cancer screening protocols without neck imaging would have missed every case. IN PRACTICE: These results 'underscore the importance' of the new International Myositis Assessment and Clinical Studies Group guidelines for cancer screening in patients with DM, 'which include neck CT imaging for high-risk dermatomyositis patients,' the authors wrote. However, they emphasized that even if initial screenings are negative, 'further evaluation should be pursued for patients with persistent symptoms and vigilance for HPV-associated HNC is critical.' SOURCE: The study was led by Leila Shayegan, MD, Department of Dermatology, Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston. It was published online on July 13 in the Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology. LIMITATIONS: Limitations included the retrospective design and small sample size. DISCLOSURES: The authors reported no funding information or relevant conflicts of interest. This article was created using several editorial tools, including AI, as part of the process. Human editors reviewed this content before publication.
