More on cervical cancer vax

[Guest guest]

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/health/womenfamily.html?in_ar

ticle_id=336178 & in_page_id=1799 & in_a_source=

Vaccine 'will wipe out' cervical cancer

by SARAH SIMS, Daily Mail

09:02am 1st February 2005

A highly effective vaccine that protects against most kinds of cervical

cancer - and which could wipe out the disease - could be available by next

year.

Researchers are working on the third phase of a trial, which involves 15,000

women worldwide and is the last step before licensing the drug for general

use.

Preliminary findings of the vaccine already suggest it is 80-100 per cent

effective.

An international clinical trial showed recently that the experimental

vaccine protects against the two strains of human papilloma virus that are

linked to 70 per cent of cervical cancers.

Scientists have already established a link between the virus and a common

viral infection that is the leading cause of cancer of the cervix.

Dr Diane Harper, from the Norris Cotton Cancer Centre and Dartmouth Medical

School in New Hampshire, America, who led the study, believes it may prevent

all diseases associated with human papilloma virus - which is the most

common sexually-transmitted viral infection - such as abnormal pap smears,

and even mouth or oral cancers.

The virus, which the Association of Reproductive Health Professionals says

is recognised as the only cause of cervical cancer, is not spread through

sex alone but by skin-to-skin contact, and produces no symptoms.

Recommended for young women

There are about 100 strains of human papilloma virus, of which 30 are linked

to cancer of the cervix.

The vaccine, manufactured by GlaxoKline, protects those who are

immunised for a period of between three and five years. It has no

side-effects, except for pain or redness at the injection site - and experts

believe it could even eradicate the disease.

" This is not an exotic disease, " says Dr Harper. " If you have contact with

another human being, you are at risk of an infection. This vaccine provides

systemic protection.

" We're still discovering all the diseases related to this virus and which

appear to be caused by it. But the vaccine offers such an advantage for

women and as soon as it becomes available we will see a change in health

care. "

The study that Dr Harper led ran from 2000 and 2003, with 1,113 women aged

15 to 25 in the US Canada and Brazil.

In women who received all three injections and all of the follow-up tests,

the vaccine was 100 per cent successful. In those who had one or two

injections, the vaccine was 91 per cent.

Researchers believe more than 75 per cent of women are infected with the

human papilloma virus at some time. Most cases are short-lived and resolve

themselves through the body's ability to develop immunity. But a small

percentage do progress to cervical cancer.

Every year around 2,500 women in Britain are diagnosed with the disease and

1,000 die. Experts believe about 70 per cent of cases are caused by the two

strains of the virus that the vaccine targets.

If the vaccine is approved, it would be recommended for young women between

the ages of ten and 12, with booster immunisations later.

Researchers are also examining a vaccination for men, who often unknowingly

carry the virus.