The cost of treating preventable cancers commonly linked to Human Papillomavirus, known as HPV, have been revealed in a new study by the Head and Neck Cancer Foundation of New Zealand.
Around 600 New Zealanders each year are diagnosed with cancers that can be caused by HPV infection.
“HPV causes throat cancer, cervical cancer and other anal genital cancers,” said cancer surgeon Swee Tan.
“HPV should be looked at as a cancer problem. About 600 people are affected by HPV-related cancers per year and more than half of them are throat cancers.”
The study showed the cost of cancers associated with HPV were $105m between 2019 and 2022.
A further $49m was spent in the same period on pre-cancer detection and treatments like colposcopy and colposcopy treatments.
“The incidence of throat cancer is rapidly rising at 5% per year and has been doing so since 2006,” Tan said.
“And the approach that we have adopted is to treat the cancer, which is horrible, with a very harsh treatment for the patients and their families, and it’s costly.”
Aucklander Ian Fernie was diagnosed with throat cancer five years ago aged 54.
His pathology tests revealed the cancer was linked to HPV.
Fernie said the diagnosis was a complete shock and he was not prepared for the seven weeks of radiation therapy that followed.
“You can read all the support information that you’re given at the time if you’re diagnosed and the clinical meetings you go to,” he said.
“But nothing really prepares you for actually going through the treatment itself. I think initially I coped with it reasonably well. But as the treatment proceeded and as I became sick, at times I really struggled. It was quite a challenge.”
There was no vaccination available for Ian Fernie in his youth.
Now though, a vaccination that prevents HPV is available in New Zealand where it is offered for free to 9–26-year-olds nationwide.
Vaccination programmes also run at many intermediate schools, but Tan is concerned that the rates of vaccination are below the national target of 75%.
The current rate is 66% with vaccinations among Māori and Pasifika around 51%.
“We have a HPV vaccination programme, which is not very successful. We need to think strategically as these cancers are preventable by vaccination,” Tan said.
“We need to vaccinate a large proportion of the population to achieve the outcome that we seek. Potentially, we can prevent these cancers rather than dealing with them further along.”
Ian Fernie encourages people to consider vaccination that prevents painful cancers like the throat cancer that he had.
It has taken him more than five years to recover and, at 59, he’s grateful to everyone who’s helped him on his difficult journey.
