Next Generation Cancer Protection : The Bivalent HPV Vaccine for Females

Abstract EN

Nearly a half a million women throughout the world develop cervical cancer every year Parkin and Bray (“Chapter 2.

The burden of HPVrelated cancers,” Vaccine, vol.

24, no.

3, pp.

S11–S25, 2006); 80% of these women are in countries without a quality-assured cytology screening program.

It is in this setting that Cervarix could reduce the incidence of cervical cancer to about 9.5/100,000 women.

New evidence indicates that this might be able to be accomplished with a single dose of Cervarix, a great advantage to public health implementation programs Kreimer et al.

(“Proof-of-principle evaluation of the efficacy of fewer than three doses of a bivalent HPV16/18 vaccine, The Journal of the National Cancer Institute, vol.

103, no.

19, pp.

1444–1451, 2011).

In countries with screening programs, adenocarcinoma is the most difficult to detect and treat with later-stage presentation and higher mortality Smith et al.

(“The rising incidence of adenocarcinoma relative to squamous cell carcinoma of the uterine cervix in the United States—a 24-year population-based study,” Gynecologic Oncology, vol.

78, no.

2, pp.

97–105, 2000) and Gunnell et al.

(“A longitudinal Swedish study on screening for squamous cell carcinoma and adenocarcinoma: evidence of effectiveness and overtreatment,” Cancer Epidemiology Biomarkers and Prevention, vol.

16, no.

12, pp.

2641–2648, 2007).

With additional cross-protection to HPV 31, 33, and 45 and protection against HPV 16 and 18 lasting at least 9.4 years, Cervarix may reduce adenocarcinomas in screened populations by more than 90%.

This paper will detail the evidence about the efficacy, immunogenicity, and safety of Cervarix in the studied populations contrasting public health goals with individual health options.