News You Can Use
The Cancer Threat That Affects Teen Girls
By Heidi Mae Bratt
A family of viruses, some linked to cervical cancer, is the most common sexually transmitted infection (STI) in teen girls, according to a recent study by the Centers for Disease Control. The study found that one in four young women ages 14 to 19 has an STI.
A study based on the 2003-04 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, led by CDC researcher Sara E. Forhan, M.D., MPH, was the first ever to examine the combined national prevalence of STIs in adolescent girls. The more than 800 teens who participated were tested for four common sexual diseases: human papillomavirus (HPV), which can cause genital warts and cervical cancer; herpes simplex virus type II, which can lead to chronic genital herpes; trichomoniasis, a parasite that can cause vaginitis and increase the risk of transmitting HIV; and chlamydia, an infection that can lead to pelvic inflammatory disease.
Of the four, HPV was by far the most prevalent, affecting 18 percent of girls. “It’s nice to have proof that we’re not just imagining how prevalent these infections are,” says Mercedes Castiel, M.D., head of general gynecology at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York.
“This study makes it clear that sexually transmitted infections commonly occur and points to our arming young women with good educational information to protect themselves,” says Forhan. To that end, she adds, the CDC recommends that young women delay their sexual debut, limit the number of partners they have, use condoms consistently and correctly, and be vaccinated against HPV before becoming sexually active, or between ages 13 and 26.
Mona Saraiya, M.D., a medical epidemiologist in the CDC’s division of cancer prevention and control, says that as sobering as it is to think of young girls contracting sexual diseases, parents should take the news as an alert, not an alarm. While HPV is very common, the incidence of cervical cancer in the United States is only about 10,000 cases annually. There are more than 100 types of HPV viruses—less than half of them affecting the genital area—and only certain types increase the risk of serious problems.
The HPV vaccine, which is administered in three doses, combats virus types 16 and 18, which cause about 70 percent of cervical cancer cases, and types 6 and 11, which are responsible for about 90 percent of cases of genital warts. Also of note: Clinical trials for the vaccine have shown it to be effective in preventing precancerous lesions of the vulva and vagina.
