Vaccination against cancer
Just three shots can reduce the risk of cervical
cancer. But a researcher says girls and young women – including those ages 9 to
18, who would get the most benefit – are not getting all the shots within the
recommended six months. Abby Berenson of the University of Texas Medical Branch
at Galveston and her team looked at data on about 272,000 girls and women who
got the first dose.
“Many patients have received one vaccine but not completed all three doses. We recommend that all patients take steps to complete the three-dose series.”
Experts say the three-dose series is known to work; they don’t know if one or two doses will.
The study in the journal Cancer was supported by the National Institutes of Health.
