Hansard

I thank all the members who are present for the debate and the 50 or so members who have signed the motion on cervical cancer and the human papilloma virus. I also thank the many individuals, organisations and charities such as Jo's Trust and Cancer Research UK that have helped to improve our understanding of the disease and have campaigned long and hard to tackle the scourge of cervical cancer. Some of them are represented in the public gallery.

As it comes at the end of European cervical cancer prevention week, the debate in the Scottish Parliament is a timely contribution to the continuing campaign. I hope that it will lead to further action from the Executive—and throughout the United Kingdom—that could dramatically improve health outcomes for women throughout the country.

The stark facts are worrying. In 2005, 127 women in Scotland died from cervical cancer and more than 1,000 died throughout the UK. That is more than 20 women every week. They are often young women who leave behind children and families. On top of that devastation to people's lives are the misery, pain and distress of radical surgery for thousands more and the anxiety and upset that all those who have an abnormal smear result experience.

In the past two decades, the cervical cancer screening programme has made a huge impact on reducing these unnecessary deaths, but there were deeply worrying news stories just last week that the number of women, particularly young women, who attend for their smear has fallen off. In Scotland, every woman between 20 and 60 is invited to have a smear test every three years, but only four in every five women take advantage of the programme. Uptake is poorer among deprived communities and among groups that are difficult to reach or disadvantaged, such as some ethnic minority groups or women with learning difficulties. As members can imagine, those women suffer proportionately higher mortality rates as a result. I will return to screening shortly.

One of the most exciting developments in cancer treatment in recent years has been the production of a vaccine—in fact, more than one vaccine—against the human papilloma virus that causes cervical cancer. One of the vaccines—Gardasil—is on the market, and another—Cervarix—is expected to be licensed imminently.

Those of us who talk about or discuss cancer regularly know how dangerous it is to raise false expectations—to talk of breakthroughs, magic bullets or cures for cancer—but there is no doubt that the vaccine is one of the most tremendous developments of recent years. For example, Gardasil targets four human papilloma virus types that are responsible for cervical cancer, for pre-cancerous lesions of the cervix and vulva and for genital warts, and it is 100 per cent effective against two of those viruses, which are responsible for almost three quarters of all cases of cervical cancer in Europe.

The vaccines have shown themselves to be so successful that their licences have been fast-tracked, because to deny them to the wider population would be unethical. It is essential to make those vaccines available to the next generation of young women through the national health service as soon as possible.