If your doctor could give you a vaccine that may prevent cancer, would you line up to get it?

I know I certainly would.

Now, an entire generation of young girls has that option. This year, Grade 8 girls across Ontario have the opportunity to take advantage of a voluntary school-based immunization program to receive the Human Papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine.       

Studies show that the vaccine, approved last year by Health Canada, will help protect them from the four most common strains of the highly contagious HPV virus. This sexually transmitted infection causes genital warts, abnormal cervical cells, as well as cervical cancer.

“The public is always looking to the medical community to provide preventative medicine,” says Dr. Andy Browning, an obstetrician/gynecologist at Royal Victoria Hospital. “Well, here’s a vaccine that can not only prevent genital warts, but potentially guard against invasive cervical cancer down the road. There’s really no evidence to suggest any downside to the vaccine.”

How common is HPV infection? According to Dr. Browning, about 75 per cent of Canadians will have at least one HPV infection in their lifetime.

Young women between 15 and 29 years old are at greatest risk, so it is important girls receive the vaccine before they become sexually active.

Which is, of course, what makes us parents of teenage daughters so squeamish. Protecting them from cancer is one thing. Protecting our little girls from high-risk sexual behaviour is somewhere most of us don’t want to go.

“But even if you’re quite certain your daughter is never going to engage in risky behaviour, her partner’s history is just as important. You have no control over that, but this vaccine can protect her,” says Browning.

But the vaccine isn’t cheap. Although there is no cost for Grade 8 girls who receive the vaccine through the school immunization program, getting it through your family doctor or obstetrician’s office is about $500 for three doses over six months.

Despite the cost; despite the newness of the vaccine; despite the discomfort I may feel about the risky behavior my 15-year-old daughter may engage in when she’s older, she and I agreed she would receive the vaccine.

For me, it was a no-brainer. The main reason? My mother is a cervical cancer survivor.  Although the rate of cervical cancer has fallen steadily over the past 20 years, it will still claim the lives of almost 400 Canadian women this year.   

Cervical cancer has a very high cure rate – as high as 90 per cent if it’s detected and treated early. But it can take a long time for abnormal cell changes in the cervix to develop into cancer, and many women will experience no symptoms at all. 

So, although this new vaccine provides protection against the most common strains of the HPV virus that cause cervical cancer, it is not a replacement for the Pap test. A combination of the two – immunization and diligent screening – is the best defense. 

-  Suzanne Legue is Royal Victoria Hospital’s senior director of corporate communications.