HPV Vaccinations

Baroness Gardner of Parkes Excerpts

Monday 26th March 2018 Lords Chamber

[Lord O'Shaughnessy]

The committee has to take a number of considerations into account—the public health benefits, short-term and long-term, and cost effectiveness—just as NICE does when approving medicines. It has to make a judgment about whether the incremental pound spent could be better spent across the entire health system, where, of course, there are many competing demands. But it is up to it to make that decision, and that will inform its final advice.

[Baroness Gardner of Parkes (Con)]

My Lords, is the Minister aware that oral cancer is very largely due to the papilloma virus? As a dentist, and on behalf of the dental profession, I strongly support immunisation, but there will always be people who do not attend to have it, even when it is introduced. So it is also important to be aware that dentists are usually the first people to detect oral cancer. For many years I have proposed that, when people go into accident and emergency for anything, someone should take one minute to see if there was any abnormality in the mouth which could be referred on at that stage. Could this even be included in a questionnaire when people go in for treatment? It would be a way of picking up oral cancer, which has increased by 23% in the last 10 years.

[Lord O'Shaughnessy]

My noble friend is quite right to highlight the link between HPV and oral cancer. The growing evidence base is one of the things which the JCVI is taking into consideration. There is absolutely no doubt that HPV causes around 99% of cervical cancers. The link to other cancers, such as the one my noble friend mentioned, is not quite the same and is still disputed, but it is one of the issues being considered.