Source: Radio New Zealand
A swab used to test for HPV. Angus Dreaver
A new study has put the cost of vaccine preventable cancers caused by the human papillomavirus (HPV) at more than $130 million in four years.
One of the study’s authors says HPV vaccine rates are far too low, and they need to be boosted to stop cancers occuring in the first place.
HPV causes several types of cancer, including oropharyngeal (throat), cervical, vaginal, vulvar, anus/anal canal and penile.
The study, published in the British Medical Journal this week, has estimated the cost between 2019 and 2022 at $131.4m – $82.4m in direct treatment costs, and $49m in pre-cancer detection.
The authors said that was likely an under-estimate, as it did not account for costs from the private sector, loss of productivity, travel costs, psychological impacts, or the recent addition of immunotherapy as a funded treatment option for throat cancer.
HPV is preventable by a course of two vaccines, administered to both genders from the age of nine to 26. The HPV vaccination programme was introduced for girls in 2008, and expanded to include boys in 2017.
The current vaccination rate is between 65 and 68 percent – and Health New Zealand has a national target of 75 percent coverage.
One of the study’s authors, Dr Swee Tan, a surgeon and head of Head and Neck Cancer Foundation, told RNZ that was “far too low”.
“And despite that, we have never met that target.”
In fact, vaccination rates were falling.
Dr Swee Tan, a surgeon and head of Head and Neck Cancer Foundation. Supplied / Head and Neck Cancer Foundation
“I think we have not paid enough attention to this,” Tan said. “I think we need to make a commitment as a country, and we need leadership.”
The Cancer Society, in its recently released election manifesto, has called for the government to do all it can to bring the HPV vaccination rate up to at least 90 percent, in-line with targets set by other developed countries and the World Health Organization’s recommendation.
Associate health minister Casey Costello, who has responsibility for the women’s health portfolio, has been approached for comment.
This study, which was funded by an internal grant from the Head and Neck Cancer Foundation Aotearoa, was a retrospective analysis of 2961 patients with the six cancers known to be associated with HPV from July 2017 to June 2022.
Currently, HPV status was not captured along with each diagnosis, and the study’s authors also called for a better system for capturing HPV-related data.
HPV-related oropharyngeal (throat) cancer is the most costly HPV-related cancer to treat in New Zealand, accounting for roughly half of total treatment costs.
And it was on the rise, increasing five percent each year since 2006, with most cases linked to HPV infection.
Tan said there were a number of advanced treatments available to people these days, but money and pain could be saved through prevention.
“We need to stop being the ambulance at the bottom of the cliff,” Tan said. “Can you imagine that, instead of doing all these very intense treatments to these patients, we can prevent the cancer developing with just two simple injections?”
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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand