Next Generation Cancer Protection: The Bivalent HPV Vaccine for Females

Nearly a half a million women throughout the world develop cervical cancer every year Parkin and Bray (“Chapter 2. The burden of HPVrelated cancers,” Vaccine, vol. 24, no. 3, pp. S11–S25, 2006); 80% of these women are in countries without a quality-assured cytology screening program. It is in this setting that Cervarix could reduce the incidence of cervical cancer to about 9.5/100,000 women. New evidence indicates that this might be able to be accomplished with a single dose of Cervarix, a great advantage to public health implementation programs Kreimer et al. (“Proof-of-principle evaluation of the efficacy of fewer than three doses of a bivalent HPV16/18 vaccine, The Journal of the National Cancer Institute, vol. 103, no. 19, pp. 1444–1451, 2011). In countries with screening programs, adenocarcinoma is the most difficult to detect and treat with later-stage presentation and higher mortality Smith et al. (“The rising incidence of adenocarcinoma relative to squamous cell carcinoma of the uterine cervix in the United States—a 24-year population-based study,” Gynecologic Oncology, vol. 78, no. 2, pp. 97–105, 2000) and Gunnell et al. (“A longitudinal Swedish study on screening for squamous cell carcinoma and adenocarcinoma: evidence of effectiveness and overtreatment,” Cancer Epidemiology Biomarkers and Prevention, vol. 16, no. 12, pp. 2641–2648, 2007). With additional cross-protection to HPV 31, 33, and 45 and protection against HPV 16 and 18 lasting at least 9.4 years, Cervarix may reduce adenocarcinomas in screened populations by more than 90%. This paper will detail the evidence about the efficacy, immunogenicity, and safety of Cervarix in the studied populations contrasting public health goals with individual health options.