Cake

From the New York Times:

WASHINGTON, June 8 — Federal drug officials announced today that they had approved a vaccine against cervical cancer that could eventually save thousands of lives in the United States each year and hundreds of thousands in the rest of the world.

Called Gardasil, the vaccine is the culmination of a 15-year scientific effort that began at the National Cancer Institute and a research center in Australia, and it may one day be seen as one of the major health advances of the early 21st century.

Federal vaccine experts are widely expected to recommend that all 11- to 12-year-old girls get the vaccine, but the vaccine's high price and religious objections to its use could blunt its benefits. Merck, Gardasil's maker, said that a full, three-shot course will cost $360 — making Gardasil among the most expensive vaccines ever made.

Gardasil is approved to treat 9- to 26-year-old girls and women, but it works best in patients who have not yet had sex. Cervical cancer is caused by infection with some of the roughly 30 genital strains of the human papillomavirus, the most common sexually transmitted disease.

The vaccine prevents lasting infections with two strains that cause 70 percent of cancers and another two strains that cause 90 percent of genital warts. If girls have already been exposed to those strains, the vaccine has no effect.

The median age at which girls first have sex is estimated to be 15. The vaccine is not recommended for boys, although Merck hopes one day to change that.

Cervical cancer is the second leading cause of death in women across the world, affecting an estimated 470,000 women and killing 233,000 each year.

Widespread use of Pap smears in the developing world has reduced its toll there. In the United States, about 9,710 women contract cervical cancer each year, and some 3,700 die from it.