Novel Single Jab may Help Prevent 70% of Cervical Cancers

Women who received three, two, or one dose of the bivalent vaccine were equally protected from HPV-16/18 for at least 4 years after vaccination.

A single jab of the bivalent human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine may help in warding off HPV-16/18 infections, which cause about 70% of cervical cancers, reveals a new study.

The new combined analysis of two independent trials strengthens previous findings from the NCI Costa Rica HPV Vaccine Trial (CVT) which reported that young women who received three, two, or one dose of the bivalent vaccine were equally protected against infection with HPV-16/18 for at least 4 years after vaccination.

New Vaccine can Prevent 80% of Cervical Cancers and Help Reduce Global Cancer Burden
Vaccine for Human papillomavirus (HPV) can provide 13% increase in protection against HPV-related cancers in comparison to the vaccines available in the market.

Due to the lack of efficacy data on fewer than three doses, the researchers conducted a post-hoc analysis combining data from the CVT that included 7466 healthy women aged 18-25 years old and the Papilloma Trial against Cancer in Young Adults (PATRICIA) trial in 18644 healthy women aged 15-25 years from Asia-Pacific, Europe, Latin America, and North America.

Women in both trials were randomly assigned to receive the HPV-16/18 vaccine or a control (hepatitis A) vaccine, given in three doses: at enrollment, 1 month, and 6 months. However, some of the women received fewer than three doses, mainly because their vaccination was discontinued due to pregnancy.

High vaccine efficacy was seen against incident HPV-16/18 infections regardless of the number of doses received. This result was also observed in a subgroup of women with no sign of HPV infection either before or at the time of first vaccination, suggesting that these results are relevant to sexually-naive girls in the recommended age range for HPV vaccination (ie, 11-12 years).

Vaccine Immunizes Nine Genotypes of Cervical Cancer
The nine-valent HPV vaccine immunizes against nine genotypes of HPV known to cause cervical cancer. US FDA approved it for use in females aged 9-26 and males aged 9-15.

In further analyses, partial protection against other HPV types not included in the vaccine formulation was seen among women who received two doses 6 months apart, similar to that reported for three doses.

However, the authors caution that more data are needed before policy guidelines can be changed.

Gold Nanorods Found to Reduce Cervical Cancer Cell Growth
For the first time, it has been proved that gold nanorods can effectively stop the growth of cervical cancer cells by the researchers at the Swinburne University of Technology, Australia.

The study is published in The Lancet Oncology.

Source-ANI

Potential Tool for Cervical Cancer Detection, Diagnosis
In many ways cervical cancer is a shining example of how successful the war on cancer can be.