A new study demonstrates that the HPV vaccine reduces the risk of dying from cervical cancer to nearly zero in women before the age of 30. We have seen many other studies that show the vaccine reduces the risk of cervical cancer, but this is one of the first that reveals a reduction in mortality risk for young women.

This is outstanding news, showing that we have a powerful tool to stop cervical cancer and stop it from killing young women. I expect, in the upcoming few years, we will see other data that the HPV vaccine prevents incidence and death from other HPV-related cancers.

This post will quickly review the new study about the HPV vaccine reducing the risk of dying from cervical cancer in young women.

All about HPV and the HPV vaccine

I know I cut and paste this section into every article I write about HPV vaccines, but it’s the first step to HPV vaccine myth debunking. Some readers may be researching the vaccine for the first time, and this provides the basics about the disease and vaccine.

However, I try to update this section when necessary with new information about either the disease or the vaccine. If you’ve read this section 47 times, skip to the next section where I discuss the key points of this article.

Genital and oral human papillomavirus (HPV) infections are the most common sexually transmitted infections (STIs) in the USA. HPV is generally transmitted through personal contact during vaginal, anal, or oral sex.

It is critical to note that there are more than 150 strains or subtypes of HPV that can infect humans; however, only 40 of these strains are linked to one or more different cancers. Moreover, most of those 40 strains are fairly rare.

Although the early symptoms of HPV infections aren’t serious and many HPV infections resolve themselves without long-term harm, HPV infections are causally linked to many types of cancers in men and women. According to current medical research, here are some of the cancers that are linked to HPV:

• Cervical cancer
• Vulvar cancer
• Vaginal cancer
• Anal cancer
• Oropharyngeal cancer (throat cancer)
• Penile cancer

In addition, there is some evidence that HPV infections are causally linked to skin and prostate cancers. The link to skin cancer is still preliminary, but there is much stronger evidence that HPV is linked to many prostate cancers.

HPV is believed to cause nearly 5% of all new cancers across the world, making it almost as dangerous as tobacco in that respect. According to published research, roughly 42 million persons in the USA are infected with disease-associated HPV, and 13 million persons acquire a new infection each year.

Each year in the United States, about 47,984 new cases of cancer are found in parts of the body where human papillomavirus (HPV) is often found — 26,280 among females and 21,704 among males. 

Most individuals don’t even know they have the infection until the onset of cancer. The CDC states that over 37,800 HPV-related cancers are diagnosed in the USA every year. In 2022, there were approximately 1,505,394 HPV-related cancer cases and 755,303 deaths worldwide, with cervical cancer being the primary cause, accounting for 14.1 per 100,000 people.

There were two HPV vaccines on the world market before 2014. GSK, also known as GlaxoSmithKline, produced Cervarix, a bivalent vaccine that protects only against two HPV strains. Cervarix has been withdrawn from the US market (although available in many other markets) because of competition from the quadrivalent, which immunizes against four different HPV strains, and the 9-valent, which protects against nine HPV strains, Gardasil.

Merck manufactures Gardasil, the most common HPV vaccine. The first version of the vaccine, quadrivalent Gardasil, targeted the two HPV genotypes known to cause about 70% of cervical cancer and two other HPV genotypes that cause genital warts. In Europe and other markets, Gardasil is known as Silgard.

The newer Gardasil 9, approved by the FDA in 2014, is a 9-valent vaccine that protects against HPV types 6, 11, 16, 18, 31, 33, 45, 52, and 58. It targets the four HPV strains found in the quadrivalent version, along with five additional ones that are linked to cervical and other HPV-related cancers. Both versions of Gardasil are prophylactic, meant to be given to females or males before they become exposed to possible HPV infection through intimate contact.

Gardasil is one of the easiest and best ways to prevent a few dangerous and, to abuse the definition slightly, common cancers that afflict men and women. Without a doubt, the HPV vaccine prevents cancer.

In the United States, the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) currently recommends that preteen girls and boys aged 11 or 12 receive the HPV vaccine. The HPV vaccine is also recommended for teenage girls and young women up to the age of 26 who did not receive it when they were younger, and boys and young men up to the age of 21.

HPV is a sexually transmitted disease. HPV causes 37,800 cancers a year in the USA and over 1.5 million worldwide. The HPV vaccine prevents one from becoming infected with HPV, which means you are protected from these cancers.

HPV vaccine linked to lower risk of cervical cancer deaths

In a paper published on 17 June 2026 in The Lancet, Peter Sasieni, PhD, and Melina Falcaro, PhD, both from the Centre for Cancer Screening, Prevention and Early Diagnosis, Wolfson Institute of Population Health, Queen Mary University of London, UK, used official cancer mortality and vaccination data for women aged 20 to 34 in the UK to calculate the impact of vaccination on cervical cancer survival.

Here are the key results:

• In women aged 20-24 years between 2020 and 2024, with HPV vaccination coverage of around 88-90% at age 12-13 years, no cervical cancer deaths occurred, compared with 23.1 expected deaths based on historical rates. This is a 100% reduction in mortality.
• In earlier birth cohorts, who were offered vaccination up to age 18 years with coverage of around 63–87%, mortality reductions of 80% in women aged 20–24 years in 2015–19 and 69% in women aged 25–29 years in 2020–24 were observed.
• For vaccinated women aged 30-34, the relative risk of death from the disease is 63% lower.
• Up until the end of 2024, HPV vaccination in England was associated with a reduction of around 199·6 cervical cancer deaths.

The authors concluded:

Our findings provide the first robust national-level evidence, albeit observational, that high HPV vaccination coverage is associated with a substantial reduction in cervical cancer deaths. This is shown by the substantial decrease in cervical cancer deaths observed among women aged 20–29 years in England, particularly among those vaccinated at ages 12–13 years. These findings support the achievability of the WHO goal of eliminating cervical cancer as a public health problem, and efforts should be made to achieve high vaccine uptake among young adolescents globally.

In an accompanying commentary published on 17 June 2026 in The Lancet, Allison Portnoy, Department of Global Health, Boston University School of Public Health, Boston, MA, and Emily A Burger, Center for Health Decision Science, Harvard T H Chan School of Public Health, Boston, MA, wrote:

…the impact of HPV vaccination on cervical cancer mortality is emerging, supported by mortality data from England in a new study in The Lancet by Peter Sasieni and Milena Falcaro, which is among the first national-level analyses of cervical cancer mortality following HPV vaccination introduction.

Summary

I hate to use superlatives in science, but this is just outstanding news. It reveals that with high HPV vaccine coverage in a population, the risk of death from cervical cancer is nearly eliminated in young women. This is a true cancer vaccine.

Tempering my enthusiasm a bit, I need to note that this is an observational study, which may contain bias and confounding data. However, the correlation between vaccine coverage and the elimination of death in the population is overwhelming.

There should be no reason to refuse the HPV vaccine since it has prevented 200 deaths from cervical cancer in young women in England.

Unfortunately, in the USA, HPV vaccine uptake seems to have peaked or even dropped over the past few years. That will mean many young women will die of cervical cancer, and many young men may die of other HPV-related cancers.

Get the vaccine if you are of the appropriate age. Better yet, make sure your young children get the vaccine before they become adults, since that gives the best results in preventing cancer.

Citations

• Portnoy A, Burger EA. HPV vaccination and early declines in cervical cancer deaths. Lancet. 2026 Jun 17:S0140-6736(26)01024-X. doi: 10.1016/S0140-6736(26)01024-X. Epub ahead of print. PMID: 42309118.
• Sasieni P, Falcaro M. Cervical cancer mortality trends following HPV vaccination in England, 2001-24: an analysis of population-based mortality data. Lancet. 2026 Jun 17:S0140-6736(26)00918-9. doi: 10.1016/S0140-6736(26)00918-9. Epub ahead of print. PMID: 42309117.

Help the Skeptical Raptor keep writing about vaccines

There are four ways you can help contribute to keeping this website running at full speed:

1. GoFundMe.
2. Subscribing via Patreon.
3. Buying your favorite stuff on Amazon.
4. Sharing this article on Social Media.