A Vaccine That Prevents Cancer, But Will Parents Accept It?

May 18, 2006 — -- For Dr. Kevin Ault, a father of two daughters, there's no question that he'll let his children be immunized against human papillomavirus, or HPV, if the Food and Drug Administration approves the vaccine, known as Gardasil.

"From the perspective of wanting to protect my children from future harm," he said, "what I'd really like to happen is for it to be recommended as part of the routine adolescent vaccination schedule," which also includes vaccines for whooping cough and meningitis.

Many doctors say that if Gardasil is approved and given to millions of young women, the vaccine could not only virtually eradicate cervical cancer, it could also mean women no longer need frequent Pap smears to detect the cancer and could save billions of dollars spent treating the disease.

But before that can happen, doctors also say it's parents who ultimately decide whether or not the vaccine is a true medical success. Why? It's not doctors and health officials but parents who must allow it to be given to their young daughters. (The vaccine works in women of all ages, but it does the best job of preventing the disease if given to women before they become sexually active.)

Ault, a gynecology professor at Emory University School of Medicine in Atlanta, admits he's a bit biased -- he helped conduct some of the research on Gardasil, which is currently awaiting approval from the FDA.

On Thursday, the FDA's vaccine advisory group voted unanimously in suport of the vaccine, and Merck, the manufacturer, expects the FDA to decide on June 8, although the administration doesn't comment on voting timeframes.

When administered properly, Gardasil protects 90 percent of women against certain types of HPV, a group of viruses that can cause a variety of problems, from genital warts to abnormal cervical changes to full-blown cervical cancer.

So far, small surveys of parents indicate that most would allow the vaccine to be given to their daughters, because they don't want them to get cervical cancer. However, that's after parents have been educated as to what HPV is and how it causes genital warts and cervical cancer.

As it stands right now, many parents simply don't understand the connection. When they were teens themselves, no one had made the medical discovery that genital warts and cervical cancer were linked by a very common virus (more than 50 percent of sexually active people have been exposed to it).