When Amina Khan turned 25 in 2023, she did so without ever needing to worry about one of the most preventable yet deadly cancers facing young women. She was 13 when she received the HPV vaccine in her school in Birmingham—part of the first generation in England to be routinely immunized. Today, her age group is living proof of what vaccination can achieve: between 2020 and 2024, not a single woman aged 20 to 24 in England died from cervical cancer. This is the first time in recorded history such a milestone has been reached, according to a landmark study published in The Lancet. The research, led by Professor Peter Sasieni at Queen Mary University of London, analyzed two decades of mortality data and found that nearly 200 young women have been saved from dying of cervical cancer since the vaccine’s introduction in 2008. For those vaccinated at the optimal age of 12 to 13, the risk of dying from cervical cancer before 30 is now close to zero.
Cervical cancer was once a leading cause of cancer death among young women in the UK. Human papillomavirus (HPV), the most common sexually transmitted infection, causes over 99% of cases. But since the rollout of the school-based vaccination program—first for girls, then expanded to boys in 2019—the trajectory has shifted dramatically. The study revealed an 80% drop in cervical cancer deaths among 20- to 24-year-olds between 2015 and 2019, even before the complete elimination of deaths in the following five years. This is the strongest national evidence yet that the HPV vaccine doesn’t just prevent infection or precancerous lesions—it saves lives.
"Thanks to HPV vaccination and cervical screening, a future where almost nobody gets cervical cancer is now firmly in sight," said Michelle Mitchell, chief executive of Cancer Research UK, which funded the study. The findings echo a global momentum: Australia, which launched the world’s first public HPV vaccination program in 2007, is on track to eliminate cervical cancer by 2035. The World Health Organization’s 2020 strategy to eliminate the disease worldwide now has a powerful blueprint.
Yet challenges remain. While vaccination coverage peaked near 90% in early cohorts, recent data shows only 76% to 86% of girls in the UK are fully vaccinated by age 15—below the WHO’s 90% target. Declining uptake, particularly in underserved communities, threatens to erode hard-won progress. "That's just the tip of the iceberg," warned Professor Sasieni. "As vaccinated generations grow older, we'll see many more lives saved from cervical cancer." With continued outreach and equity in access, England’s success could become a global standard—one where cervical cancer becomes a rarity, not a risk.