Primary prevention of cervical cancer in women: Human papillomavirus vaccine

Cervical cancer is the fourth most frequently occurring cancer among women worldwide with 90% of the new cases and deaths occurring in low and middle income countries[1]. In the 1970s, cervical cancer accounted for 4% of all deaths from cancer in women in England and Wales each year[2]. Despite its prevalence there was limited understanding of the cause[2]. Sexual intercourse was established to be a major risk factor by Gagnon and Towne [3,4]. Their studies investigating the medical records of nuns demonstrated how rare cervical cancer was in women assumed to never have had sexual intercourse[3,4].