A major pharmaceutical company announced promising results Thursday from a phase III study on a vaccine that prevents a common sexually transmitted disease that can lead to cervical cancer.
Merck and Co. Inc. said data from the two-year trial for GARDASIL, a vaccine that protects women from contracting the human papillomavirus (HPV) showed a 100 percent prevention rate of certain cervical cancers and pre-cancers.
The study involved more than 12,000 women ages 16 to 26 in 13 countries worldwide. Half of the women were given the vaccine, while the other half received a placebo injection.
"These are the first pivotal data to show that vaccination with GARDASIL prevented 100 percent of cases of high-grade pre-cancer and non-invasive cervical cancer associated with HPV types 16 and 18; no cases of [the pre-cancer or cancer] were observed in the vaccine group compared to 21 cases in the placebo group," Laura Koutsky, a principle investigator for the HPV research group, said in a release.
HPV is an STD that can infect both men and women and is known to lead to cervical cancers in women. Statistics show at least half of all sexually active men and women are infected with the virus some time in their lives.
Though the vaccine still needs approval by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, researchers and doctors alike are anticipating it will soon be available to the general public.
"The hope is the vaccine, if given widely, will prevent HPV and have the potential to eventually reduce or eliminate cervical cancer," said Craig Roberts, an epidemiologist with University of Wisconsin University Health Services and manager at Blue Bus STD Clinic. However, Roberts said it may take 20 to 30 years to see the decline in the incidence of the cancer.
Roberts said HPV is the most commonly occurring STD and often infects young adults in their late teens and early 20s.
The virus often goes undetected in both men and women and then clears the body after one to two years. However, in some women, the virus becomes persistent and causes changes in cervical cells, leading to cancer.
"HPV in [and] of itself is not that big of a deal, but there's the real danger in that it triggers changes that then result … in a subset of women with HPV [who] are much, much more susceptible to the development of cervical cancer," Cindy Haq, M.D., a professor of family medicine and population health, said. "Cervical cancer can then progress on to become invasive and actually kill women."
According to statistics, about 70 percent of cervical cancers diagnosed in women are the result of HPV.
Roberts said the vaccination is a critical medical breakthrough and added that, if approved, UHS would provide the vaccine and give it to students who request it.
"This would be the first vaccine that protects directly against cancer," Roberts said. "We are looking forward to preventing cervical cancer with a vaccine. We've been waiting a long time for this."
