EU Commission issues new recommendations for vaccine-preventable cancers

The European Commission presented on Wednesday (31 January) new recommendations on vaccine-preventable cancers, setting targets for member states to boost human papillomaviruses (HPV) and hepatitis B virus (HBV) vaccination.  

Human papillomavirus (HPV) causes about 5% of all cancers worldwide. The most common is cervical cancer but it can also cause cancer in the vagina, vulva, anus, penis, and oropharynx. In Europe alone, HPV is responsible for about 90.000 cancers a year. 

“With safe and effective vaccines, we have a historic opportunity to eliminate cervical cancer and other cancers caused by these viruses”, Health Commissioner Stella Kyriakides said in a press release. 

The new recommendations, initially expected by the end of 2023, aim to achieve the objectives already set by Europe’s Beating Cancer Plan and the World Health Organisation (WHO). 

Europe’s Beating Cancer Plan set a goal to fully vaccinate for HPV 90% of the target population of girls and to increase the vaccination rate in boys by 2030. 

For HBV (hepatitis B), the WHO set 95% of the vaccination targets for pregnant women screened for hepatitis B, newborns who received birth-dose vaccination, and full vaccination coverage of childhood. 

Despite these goals being already in place, the Commission communication warned that “there is still a long way to go in reaching these objectives”. 

The text explains that many member states are still below 50% HPV vaccination coverage for girls with limited data available for boys and young adults. It also recognises that there is a significant lack of data on HBV vaccination rates.

The Commission calls on member states to strengthen HPV and HBV vaccination programmes by integrating them into their national programmes and to improve the monitoring of vaccination coverage rates through electronic vaccination registries. 

It also asks EU countries to comply with the Beating Cancer Plan and WHO’s timeline as well as to set a concrete goal for HPV vaccination for boys. 

The proposal also intends to support the development of modelling tools and analysis to estimate the cost-effectiveness of preventing cancers caused by these two viruses to support member states in their decision-making when it comes to integrating vaccination into their national immunisation and cancer prevention programmes.

The Commission also announced that, together with the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC), it will develop a new dashboard of national vaccination rates for HPV and HBV by the end of 2024 to improve the monitoring across the EU. 

[Edited by Zoran Radosavljevic]

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