Vaccinating against cervical cancer - and not just young girls!

[18 June 2007 - 14h11]
[mis à jour le 20 June 2007 à 14h48]

While it’s true that the prevalence of infection with the human papillomavirus is greatest between the ages of 20 and 30 (with between 30% and 50% of women being infected), it’s also the case that a second peak occurs after the age of 50 (with 15% to 30% of women affected). For these women too, vaccination would represent a genuine benefit in public health care.

With more than 500,000 new cases and 280,000 deaths worldwide each year, cervical cancer is, after breast cancer, the second most common cancer affecting women. It is also the second cancer for which a vaccine is now available, following on from the hepatitis B vaccine. HPVs – Human Papilloma Viruses – are oncogens already well known to us and have been codified. Four of them are responsible for 80% of worldwide cases of cervical cancer: the viruses HPV 16, HPV 18, HPV 45 and HPV 31.

The first vaccine of this type was brought on the market in November 2006 by the American firm Merck & C°, under the brand name Gardasil. Studies have shown conclusively the benefits of vaccinating young girls with this drug before they become sexually active. They have also shown that this type of vaccination is cost effective, an aspect about which funding bodies are particularly sensitive as the price of these vaccines – 3 doses at 145 euros each! – is not inconsiderable.

At the 43rd Annual Meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) in Chicago, some important information on this subject was reported by a team of German researchers. According to Professor Tino F. Schwarz and his team (from the University of Würzburg), vaccination using a different vaccine – HPV 16/18 AS04 produced by the British firm GSK – “gave effective protection in women up to the age of 55”.

This conclusion is the result of a phase III study conducted on over 500 women aged 15 to 55 in Germany and Poland. The women were vaccinated three times by injection at months 0, 1 and 6 respectively and displayed an excellent immunogenicity profile. “After 18 months, 100% of the women in all age groups were still seropositive for the two antigens HPV 16 and 18”, the author explained. But in the age group 15 to 25, where the time lapse is greatest, the protection observed is now 5.5 years.

“The older a woman is at the time of contagion” – with the infection [editor’s note] – “the more likely the infection is to remain active and eventually to lead to the formation of precancerous lesions”. Which means that far more women would be likely to benefit from this vaccination than was initially thought.

Source : from our special correspondents in Chicago at the Annual Meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology, 1-5 June 2007

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