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Early trials, funded by NCI with support from the NIH Office of Research on Women's Health, have indicated that the virus-like particle (VLP) vaccine is well tolerated and induces a strong protective response by the immune system.
A large-scale efficacy trial in Costa Rica began in the spring of 2004, using the GlaxoSmithKline HPV 16/18 VLP vaccine. HPV 16 and 18 - two common types of the virus - together account for an estimated 60 to 70 percent of cervical
cancer cases worldwide.
In late 2002, Merck Research Laboratories reported exceptional efficacy of a similar experimental vaccine against HPV 16. None of the women in that placebo-controlled trial who received a series of three vaccine shots developed persistent HPV 16 infection.
NCI is also planning U.S. studies to evaluate another version of the HPV 16 VLP vaccine that, along with preventing infection with HPV 16, may also be able to fight an existing viral infection.
"Our hope and expectation is that we will soon have a vaccine in clinical use to prevent persistent infection with HPV 16 and 18, and cervical disease associated with these infections" says Allan Hildesheim, Ph.D., senior investigator in NCI's Division of Cancer Epidemiology and Genetics. "The vaccine could have tremendous public health implications. In the long term, if it cuts global incidence of
cervical cancer in half, the vaccine could reduce the number of women affected by up to 250,000 per year."
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