Arirang TV
Cancer, it's the most feared disease among Koreans that claims many lives each year. Among the many types, cervical cancer infects 27 women out of every 100,000 worldwide annually, making it one of the more common cancers along with breast and uterine cancers.
But, a local team of medical scientists says they have succeeded in developing a vaccine to treat cervical cancer. Ahn Woong-sik, a College of Medicine professor at the Catholic University of Korea said Tuesday his medical team has found an antibody which can fight off Human Papilloma Virus, the main cause of uterine cervix cancer.
This is a virus that affects up to 20 percent of sexually active women. Doctors say many of them are not aware of their infection because the virus, which grows on the epidermis, the first layer of skin, doesn't show much symptoms. However, the Human Papilloma Virus will be life-threatening for 10 to 20 percent of infected women because it can develop into uterus-related cancers.
Based on experiments on mice, Professor Ahn explained the newly developed vaccine gave immunity to the Papilloma virus even before and after the infection.
The local team of medical scientists plans to test the vaccine on humans starting next year with the goal of completing the remedy research in three to five years.
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