Study on local HPV infection patterns  
The results will help policy makers and parents decide who should be vaccinated. APRIL CHONG reports

A new study hopes to recruit 1,800 women - from teens to those in their middle-age - to find out the infection patterns of a common virus that may cause cervical cancer.

Such a study can help determine if a vaccination programme here would be cost-effective.

The study, by Singapore General Hospital (SGH), will look at which types of human papilloma virus (HPV) are more common and whether certain subtypes are associated with certain age groups.

Launched in August this year, it will also determine whether factors like sexual habits, the use of hormones and smoking are associated with specific subtypes of HPV infection.

Currently, more than 100 HPV subtypes are known and 15 of them are associated with cervical cancer. Some other subtypes cause non-cancerous diseases such as genital warts.

"It is a silent disease. This is particularly true for the subtypes of HPV causing cervical cancer," said Professor Tay Sun Kuie, the study's principal investigator and senior consultant at the hospital's obstetrics and gynaecology department.

"The virus can infect a girl during adolescence and gradually induce changes in the cells on the cervix until pre-cancer develops in young adulthood and cancer in the middle age or later in life," he said.

Prof Tay cited a similar study done virus prevalence was different in specific age groups and that most of the subtypes led to genital warts, not cancer.

Most women who get abnormal pap smear results do not have the cancerous subtypes but they end up going through anxiety before further tests can confirm what they have, said Prof Tay.

He hopes the study can shed similar light on the prevalence of the virus here as there is little such data now.

He added that it can help doctors understand why the occurrence of cervical cancer remains relatively high here,
compared to countries of similar economic status such as Australia.

Nine out of 100,000 women here have cervical cancer while the proportion is halved in Australia, he said.

Results of the study are expected to be out in February next year, when the hospital would have recruited its target of 1,800 women. Almost one-third of this target has already been achieved.

Participants are Singaporean women between the ages of 15 and 55 who have never been vaccinated against HPV and who have not been diagnosed with cervical cancer or pre-cancer.

There will be a short interview and a cervical sample or genital skin swab will be taken.

Less than 1 per cent - or about 6,600 of 1.8 million women between ages 10 and 25 - have been vaccinated. Cervical cancer is the sixth most common cancer among women here killing 200 every year.

The results from this study will help health policy makers and parents decide on the age groups of adolescents and adult women who should be vaccinated against HPV infection, said Prof Tay.