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Doctors want cervical cancer jab for boys and earlier tests for girls
Anna Davis, Health Reporter02.07.09
Doctors today called for the cervical cancer vaccination programme to be rolled out to boys as well as girls.
They attacked the Government's “haphazard and piecemeal” approach to the disease and called for an overhaul in the way it is tackled.
The virus targeted by the vaccine can cause penile or anal cancer in men.
Members of the British Medical Association also voted at their meeting in Liverpool for women to be screened for cervical cancer from the age of 20, rather than 25.
The Government ruled last week that there should be no change to the current 25-year age limit on smear tests, even though it is 20 in Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland.
Dr Mary McCarthy, from south Staffordshire, said: “Until 2003 in England the age screening started at 20. The high-profile death of Jade Goody has led to more requests for screening from younger women. Is it ethical to refuse 24-year-olds a smear test?
“The message should be clear and consistent. The NHS should not have different policies in different areas.
“Telling our patients that in England they do not need a smear until they are 25 may give them the impression that a smear is not important.”
But Dr Surendra Kumar, a member of the Department of Health's advisory committee on cervical cancer, said younger women who are tested for cervical cancer are more likely to have a false positive test. They will therefore have unnecessary treatment, which could increase risks later in life.
Supporting lowering the age limit on smear tests, Dr Kate Bramall, said: “Some Primary Care Trusts will refuse to process smears taken from women under the age of 25. This is ridiculous.
“One of my school friends died at the age of 23 from cervical cancer and my best friend was diagnosed at 20. When the human cost is so high we need to make a stand for common sense.”
Pressure to lower the screening age has been mounting since the death of Goody in March at the age of 27.
A review commissioned by the Government said screening under-25s would do more harm than good. The report from the Advisory Committee on Cervical Screening said mistakes could be made as smear tests are not so easily read in young women. Treatment can damage the neck of the womb, leading to premature births.
Doctors also criticised the Government's handling of the vaccine against the human papillomavirus, which can cause cervical cancer. Currently girls are given the HPV vaccine at the age of 12 and 13, or 17 and 18.
Dr Sohal Ashraf from Preston said: “HPV affects men as well as women. The Government has missed a trick. This is an important public health issue.”
But Sir Charles George, chairman of the BMA's board of science, warned that giving the vaccination to boys would double the cost of the vaccination programme.
If I had smear at 23, I may have avoided a hysterectomy
Tessa Shewan was 23 when she started suffering from cervical cancer symptoms.
Despite telling her GP she was bleeding between periods and after sex, she was not offered a smear test because she was too young and it was put down to hormones.
It was only when she changed doctors in February last year, 18 months after first experiencing symptoms, she was told she needed to be tested for cervical cancer.
The results showed she had the disease and last November Ms Shewan had a hysterectomy at the Royal Marsden hospital and chemotherapy for five months.
She said: “I feel angry I wasn't given a smear test the first time I saw my GP. Perhaps my cancer would have been detected earlier and a hysterectomy wouldn't have been necessary.”
Now 25, Ms Shewan, from Croydon, added: “Smear tests are supposed to be for screening, not for diagnosis.”
Reader views (3)
i think boys should get the jab because then there is a chance that not as many girls will have cervical cancer.
- Noah Hill, London
Compulsory this, compulsory that. What next, compulsory sex under the watchful eye of 'teachers' to be sure the kids are doing it correctly before they get out of grade school?? Lose your virginity in front of the class to remove the 'stigma' or some such nonsense?
How about we make personal responsibility COMPULSORY again?
- Trunk, US
I have suffered most of my life with Bowen disease (VIN)
which is a skin disease, very unsighty and unpleasant and which can lead to cancer of the vulva and put me at a higher risk of cervical cancer . Vaccination was not available for me but the Government should make sure that compulsory vaccination against the HPV virus is done for all young women prior to their first intercourse so they do not have to live with Bowen disease and VIN like I had to. It is not only cervical cancer and it is ignorant to think that HPV risk is only cervical cancer...
- Isabelle Tastet, London
