Erika Thompson would like to see cervical cancer become a disease of the past.
“If we can get a high enough threshold for HPV vaccination, we have the opportunity not only to reduce those HPV related cancers, but there are now goals around cervical cancer elimination, which I think is achievable in our lifetime,” Thompson said. “But HPV vaccination is a critical component to that.”
Thompson is an associate professor in the Department of Quantitative and Qualitative Health Sciences at The University of Texas School of Public Health San Antonio, and the chair of the Texas Human Papillomavirus (HPV) Coalition. She leads a community-based intervention program of HPV vaccination for South Texas teens, which was recently included in a $3.4 million grant award for UT Health San Antonio from the Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas (CPRIT).
The human papillomavirus is the leading cause of cervical cancer. Vaccinating girls against HPV dramatically reduces their risk of developing that cancer. Thompson said scientists have isolated HPV as the cause of five other types of cancer, including oropharyngeal cancer, a kind of throat cancer, which is much more common in men.
“So collectively, there are about 37,000 cancers a year that are caused by HPV,” Thompson said.
That’s why the HPV vaccine is recommended for girls and boys between the ages of 13 and 15. In that age group, it is a two-dose vaccine series. In older teens and adults, it is a three-dose series.
To eliminate cervical cancer in Thompson’s lifetime, many more teens will need to get vaccinated against HPV, Thompson said. The latest data show that less than 60% of 13 to 15-year-olds have had both doses of the vaccine. Her goal is to increase that number to 80%.
“Kids in Texas are required to get vaccinated for MMR (measles, mumps, and rubella) and Tdap (tetanus, diphtheria, and pertussis) when they're adolescents, and they need that in order to go to school,” Thompson noted. “HPV is treated as this 'other,' even though it should be happening at the same time.”
Thompson acknowledged that it’s a challenging time for parents who are being bombarded with misinformation about vaccines. When talking with concerned parents, her objective is to listen and try to understand their points of view. She then tries to address their concerns with evidence-based information, if they’re open to hearing it.
“No one wants to be told what to do,” Thompson said. “How do we find ways to communicate in a manner that meets people's needs? How do we learn from one another with the collective goal of preventing HPV-related cancers?”
These are the questions she’s trying to answer as she works in underserved communities to offer community-wide vaccination services in accessible ways, including in settings like after-school programs.
Science & Medicine is a collaboration between TPR and The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio, about how scientific discovery in San Antonio advances the way medicine is practiced everywhere.
