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Vaccine
90 Percent Effective Against Cervical Cancer |
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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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