In a clinical Phase III study just published, a human papillomavirus vaccine candidate was 90.4 percent protective against pre-cancerous lesions, a cervical cancer precursor, caused by HPV types 16 and 18.
British firm GlaxoSmithKline's HPV vaccine candidate, Cervarix, targets HPV types 16 and 18, which cause 70 percent of cervical cancer cases worldwide, according to the UN Population Fund (UNFPA).
The study enrolled 9,000 women, more than half from Finland and the rest from 13 other, mostly developing nations. The control group received a vaccine for hepatitis A. The results are drawn from a 15-month follow-up period. Cervarix side effects were minimal, researchers reported.
"The vaccine is effective, well-tolerated, and immunogenic in a broad population of young adult women," said lead researcher Jorma Paavonen of the University of Helsinki. "The vaccine is not therapeutic but prophylactic," he said. For women already infected by one of the HPV types Cervarix targets, the candidate may be protective against the remaining HPV type, he said. And the study showed Cervarix offered "some cross-protection from other strains" among women exposed to both HPV types the vaccine targeted, said Paavonen.
Cervical cancer is the second-most common cancer among women, and 90 percent of new cases occur in developing nations. Left untreated, invasive cervical cancer is nearly always fatal, and mortality is expected to climb worldwide by 25 percent over the next 10 years, UNFPA says.
Glaxo funded the study, "Efficacy of a Prophylactic Adjuvanted Bivalent L1 Virus-Like-Particle Vaccine Against Infection with Human Papillomavirus Types 16 and 18 in Young Women: An Interim Analysis of a Phase III Double-Blind, Randomized Controlled Trial," which was published in The Lancet Early Online Publication (2007;doi:10.1016/S0140-6736(07)60946-5).
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| Agence France Presse (06.27.07) |
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