Posted 05/03/06

Possibilities in HPV prevention
Researchers have developed a vaccine that may prevent the sexually transmitted disease and cervical cancer

Alyssa Baldino | contributing writer
abaldino@smcvt.edu

One of the leading causes of cervical cancer for women, the Human Papilloma Virus (HPV), may finally have a treatment available to the public by 2007. GlaxoSmithKline, a company from the United Kingdom, has developed "Cervarix," a vaccine with the potential to prevent the virus against the two cancer-causing strands: HPV-16 and HPV-18.

What is HPV?

HPV can be prevented by practicing safe sex through the use of condoms. (Jelean Durrant, photo)

“HPV is a DNA virus that invades human skin,” says Dr. Diane Harper, a faculty member at Dartmouth College Medical School.

Harper says she decided to begin trial testing of Cervarix on women to prove the effectiveness of the vaccine, and to create a closer time to when the vaccine would be available. She says cervical cancer can be eradicated with a vaccine.

According to the University of Iowa health care Web site, the HPV is a common germ that causes abnormal growth of tissue in places such as feet, hands, vocal chords, mouth, and genital organs. HPV is spread through unprotected sexual contact, but signs may not develop until many years later.

Vaccine efficacy

According to the National Cervical Cancer Coalition, each year 14,000 women in the United States are diagnosed with cervical cancer and more than 3,900 die from the disease. Harper says that Cervarix provides 100 percent protection against HPV-16 and HPV-18 and will change the influence of other cancer vaccines in the future.

“In the vaccine world, it is unheard of to find 100 percent efficacy. This means we have the potential to erradicate cervical cancer,” Harper says, who is holding the principal investigation in the Northeast U.S. To be completely confident in the results, Harper says she needs participants from everywhere in the United States.

“There is no research site north of Philadelphia and east of Chicago,” Harper says. Finding women to participate in the study is important for the overall process in researching cancer, she says.

Expenses and availability

In an e-mail interview, the director of health services at St. Michael's College, Susan Jacques, writes that she is aware of the new HPV vaccine and the clinical trials that are occurring.

“We have diagnosed and treated many cases of HPV at SMC Student Health Services,” Jacques wrote in an e-mail. “It is unfortunately common among young adults.”

According to Harper, vaccines will have an expensive price tag at first, ranging from $300 to $500 for three doses. Trials for the vaccine cost about $100 million to manage, she says. The vaccine will help to lessen the amount of routine pap-smear tests that many doctors require.

Susan Jaques works at Health Services at St. Michael's, where pap-smears are available to students. (Jelean Durrant, photo)

“All women age 21 and over, and women sexually active before the age of 21 should begin pap-smears as part of their health routine,” Jacques wrote.

The vaccine will be most effective for young men and women before they become sexually active, she wrote.

“We perform gynecological examinations such as pap tests and tests for sexually transmitted infections. HPV and early cervical cancer are curable," Jacques wrote.

It can happen to anyone

St. Michael's senior Brandy Davis says she would consider taking the vaccine because of the history of cancer in her family.

“There have been varying degrees of different types of cancer through my family and relatives, so it’s always in the back of my mind,” she says.

Davis says that though she would be interested in the vaccine, right now it is too expensive for her to afford.

According to Davis, being sexually active gives her another reason to consider Cervarix.

“I think I would get the vaccine because you can’t always know a guy's sexual history,” she says.

Brandy Davis says she would consider getting the vaccine as preventative if it wasn't so expensive. (Jelean Durrant, photo)

Davis says she thinks regular check-ups are important, which she mentions was how one of her friends found out she had contracted the disease.

“My friend got HPV from her boyfriend who was sleeping around,” Davis says. “She went for her regular check up at the gynecologist and her tests results came out abnormal.”

Davis says her friend received the virus from unprotected sex and eventually had surgery to remove cists that formed on her cervix as a result of the infection.

“She didn’t know anything was wrong with her until she got her test results back. She was lucky they found the cists early on,” Davis says. “She was only 20 when it happened.”

What the future holds

Whether the vaccine will be available to college students is an issue that has not yet been dealt with by GlaxoSmithKline. However, Jacques says she is already prepared for whatever is necessary at St. Michael's.

“I think the vaccine will be important in the future for prevention of HPV," she says. "The push for the vaccine in women is because HPV is the leading cause of cervical cancer in the world."

According to Jaques, the vaccine should be available for anyone without a history of HPV who desires it.