Cervical Cancer Vaccine Effective For A Long Time

Researchers from Dartmouth Medical School, USA, say that an experimental vaccine, Cervarix, offers protection from cervical cancer for at least four and a half years and seems to protect women from other viruses that also cause cancer.


The author of the study, Dr. Diane Harper, said that they found everyone was still protected four and a half years after being given the vaccine. You can read the report in The Lancet (April 6).


Dr. Harper and team followed up on a previous study, involving 1,100 women who were given Cervarix. Of the 776 women they followed up on - some had been given the vaccine while others had received a placebo - all the women who had been given Cervarix still tested positive for immunizatiojn against HPV types 16 and 18 after four and a half years. HPV (human papilloma virus) causes most cervical cancers.


The women had received three doses of either vaccine or placebo. None of the women who were given Cervarix experienced side effects.


The women who were still immunized against HPV 16 and 18 had no decrease in their antibody levels, meaning the protection will last more than four and a half years.


The team found that the vaccine also protects the women from HPV 45 and 31 - these types of viruses can also cause cervical cancer to develop.


The most common way HPV is spread is by sexual contact. Cervical cancer is the second most common malignant cancer in women.


Cervarix is produced by GlaxoSmithkline (GSK).

www.gsk







View drug information on Cervarix [Human Papillomavirus Bivalent.