Dr Neff on the Effect of Widespread HPV Vaccination on the Cervical Cancer Landscape

“We really need to be more thoughtful in terms of guiding new evidence-based treatments towards patients [with cervical cancer]. I'm thinking specifically about clinical trials for cervical cancer treatment; we need to be thoughtful about where is the highest burden and making sure that newer therapies are available to that patient population, which may not be in suburban academic medical practices anymore.”

Robert Neff, MD, a physician and associate professor of Gynecologic Oncology at the Ohio State Comprehensive Cancer Center—James, discussed how the increasingly widespread uptake of human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccination could affect the diagnosis and treatment of patients with cervical cancer.

According to the 2026 edition of the American Cancer Society’s Cancer Statistics report, 13,490 new cases of cervical cancer are estimated to be diagnosed in 2026, with an estimated 4200 deaths. However, from 2018 to 2022, the estimated incidence rate has declined by 0.7%. Comparatively, the estimated incidence rate declined by 3.7% from 1998 to 2003, 1.1% from 2003 to 2013, and 1.7% from 2013 to 2016.

Oncologists are excited by the uptake of HPV vaccination, which continues to improve, Neff began. The incidence of cervical cancer is anticipated to further decrease, partially due to this update, he added. However this may take longer in select patient populations, as there are still pockets of patients who have a high burden of cervical cancer within the US and abroad.Addressing these unmet needs will naturally take time, Neff said.

Thoughtful consideration of ways to get new evidence-based treatments to patients who have high disease burden, such as clinical trials, will be paramount to further reducing the burden of cervical cancer, Neff explained. It is likely that the burden of disease for patients who are diagnosed with cervical cancer will shift towards those diagnosed in later stages, he concluded.