The Bureau of Food and Drugs (BFAD) has approved the first-ever vaccine against cervical cancer, the second type of cancer that is affecting thousands of Filipino women.

The vaccine called Quadrivalent Human Papillomavirus (Types 6,11,16,18) Recombinant Vaccine, is being introduced by US-based Merck Sharp & Dohme (MSD) that seeks to save the lives of about 10 Filipino women who die daily of cervical cancer in the Philippines.

Cervical cancer, which is caused by human papillomavirus (HPV), is the second-most-common cause of cancer death in women around the world and in the Philippines. Each year, an estimated 500,000 women are diagnosed for this type of illness that also cause 240,000 deaths worldwide.

According to the Philippine Cancer Society, 7,277 new cases of cervical cancer were diagnosed in 2005 while 3,807 deaths were recorded during that period. Aside from preventing HPV, the MSD quadrivalent vaccine is also approved for the prevention of genital warts and low-grade cervical lesions for women aged nine to 26 years.

The vaccine is designed to prevent the majority of HPV-related clinical diseases caused by HPV 6, 11, 16 and 18. Types 16 and 18 account for approximately 70 percent of cervical cancer cases.

Dr. Cersar Recto II, MSD’s medical director, said there is an ongoing study on the possibility of expanding the coverage of the vaccine that would benefit “mid-adult women” and not just those from nine to 26 years.

Dr. Susan Nagtalon, president of the Philippine Obstetrical and Gynecological Society Inc. (POGS), said unknown to many, cervical cancer is another type of sexually transmitted disease that does not easily show signs and symptoms.

“If a woman becomes sexually active she should have screening between the age of 25 to 49 every two to three years,” explained Nagtalon, saying that women with multiple partners and those who smoke are especially at risk of developing the disease.

On the other hand, Dr. Efren Domingo, president of the Society of Gynecologic Oncologists, noted that HPV can be transmitted not only through sexual intercourse but even through “nonpenetrative” mode such as “intimate skin contact” as in women-to-women sex, oral-genital means, and by a foreign object.

“It’s a broad spectrum of [sexual] activity,” he said at Wednesday’s press conference at the Crowne Plaza on Ortigas Avenue in Pasig City.

Domingo added that women who had multiple child births and miscarriages are also at high risk to cervical cancer. He noted that many Filipino women only go to the doctor when they are already experiencing intense pain instead of subjecting themselves to early prevention through testing. The most common type of diagnosing HPV is through Pap smear.

According to him, doctors have observed that patients go for consultations when they are already in Stage Three of the cancer which has a 35-percent survival rate within five years.
This is because before the advent of a vaccine, patients are wary of the cost of treatment.