A conference was held in Mumbai a few days back, in order to mark the Platinum jubilee of a chief cancer care hospital. One of the issues that were conferred in the event was “whether vaccination for cervical cancer should be incorporated into the national immunization scheme for all girl children”. This issue divided the gathering of national and international oncologists as they had different opinions on the same. A few International oncologists who were present at the conference advocated the use of cervical cancer vaccine.
The Hospital’s Director, however, stood up to say that that there was inadequate evidence to start vaccinating India’s girls. Cervical cancer gets approximately 70,000 Indian women annually and is the second most frequent cancer after breast cancer in India. According to an official of the WHO’s section of cancer surveillance ”India accounts for one-fourth of all…
