Zero Deaths Stun England’s Doctors

For the first time in recorded history, not a single woman in her early twenties died from cervical cancer in England over a five-year stretch — and researchers say a vaccine given to 12-year-old girls is the reason why.

Story Snapshot

A June 2026 Lancet study found zero cervical cancer deaths in women aged 20-24 in England from 2020 to 2024, compared to 23 expected deaths based on historical rates.
Researchers estimate the human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine prevented roughly 200 cervical cancer deaths in England through the end of 2024.
About 88-90% of girls in the affected age group received the HPV vaccine at ages 12-13, which researchers say drove the dramatic result.
Vaccine uptake in the UK has since dropped from roughly 90% to 75%, largely due to misinformation — threatening to reverse these gains.

Zero Deaths: What the Lancet Study Actually Found

Researchers at Queen Mary University of London published findings in The Lancet on June 17, 2026, that stopped the medical world in its tracks. Among women aged 20-24 in England, cervical cancer killed no one between 2020 and 2024. Historical data predicted 23 deaths in that group during the same period. That gap — 23 expected deaths versus zero recorded — is what researchers call a 100% relative risk reduction in that age group.

The numbers hold up across slightly older women too. Women aged 25-29 also showed a 100% reduction in cervical cancer deaths. Women aged 30-34 showed a 63% reduction. The pattern tracks almost perfectly with when each group received the vaccine. The younger the woman at vaccination, the stronger the protection. This is exactly what vaccine science predicts, and England’s real-world data is now confirming it at a national scale.

Nearly 200 Lives Saved — and Researchers Say That Is Just the Beginning

The Lancet study estimates the HPV vaccination program prevented approximately 200 cervical cancer deaths in England through the end of 2024, with a range of 125 to 274 prevented deaths depending on how the data is modeled. Lead researcher Professor Peter Sasieni described that figure as “just the tip of the iceberg.” The vaccinated generation is still young. As they age into their 30s and 40s — the peak years for cervical cancer — the true scale of lives saved will become much clearer.

England launched its national HPV vaccination program in 2008, offering the jab to girls at ages 12-13. The cohort now aged 20-24 had vaccination coverage of 88-90%. That near-universal uptake is widely credited with producing the zero-death outcome. Cervical cancer diagnoses also dropped 87% in girls vaccinated before age 16, and 80% in women aged 20-24 who were vaccinated between ages 12-18 during the 2015-2019 period.

What the Scientists Are Careful to Say

The study is observational, not a randomized controlled trial. That means researchers cannot rule out every other possible factor — changes in cancer screening, for example, or herd immunity effects that protected even unvaccinated women. The authors themselves say that 100% biological effectiveness from the vaccine alone is unlikely. Some of the protection likely comes from vaccinated women reducing the spread of HPV to unvaccinated women around them. Researchers also suspect a small number of deaths may have been missed in the data, meaning the zero figure could be very slightly understated.

The statistics now prove the point: HPV vaccination saves lives. In England, cervical cancer deaths among women aged 20–24 have fallen to zero in recent years. Well done to those who introduced HPV vaccination into the national programme. Public health works.#Cancer #vaccines… pic.twitter.com/SocoymwfIp

— Shahram Kordasti (@SKordasti) June 27, 2026

None of those caveats change the core finding. Even accounting for every limitation, the data shows a dramatic, historically unprecedented drop in cervical cancer deaths in the exact age groups with the highest vaccination rates. That is not a coincidence. The authors call it the first robust national-level evidence that high HPV vaccination coverage is tied to a major reduction in cervical cancer deaths.

The Threat That Could Erase These Gains

Here is where the story takes a troubling turn. Vaccine uptake in the UK has fallen from around 90% to roughly 75%, driven by misinformation — including the false claim that the HPV vaccine encourages early sexual activity. Experts say 90% coverage is the minimum needed to hit the World Health Organization’s goal of eliminating cervical cancer by 2040. England is now below that line. Every percentage point lost in coverage is a future death that the vaccine could have prevented but won’t.

The United States faces a similar problem from a much lower starting point. In 2023, only 57.3% of adolescents aged 13-15 had received the HPV vaccine as recommended. Approximately 37,800 cancer cases per year in the US are linked to HPV, and roughly 35,000 of those could be prevented through vaccination. England just showed the world what 90% coverage looks like in practice. The question now is whether other countries are paying attention — and whether parents will act on what the data so clearly shows.