Date: Wed, 21 Feb 2001 09:18:57 -0800
Reply-To: Bill Davidson <wdavidson@THEGRID.NET>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: Bill Davidson <wdavidson@THEGRID.NET>
Subject: HPV Vaccine for Cervical Cancer
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The following article is from today's Wall Street Journal.
It's not about the strain of HPV that causes RRP. But if it works they may
eventually get around to a vaccine for the strain(s) of the HPV viruse that
causes RRP... would be nice...
Bill Davidson
Vaccine to Combat Cervical Cancer
Passes Crucial Human Safety Test
Associated Press
WASHINGTON -- Government scientists have created a potential vaccine against
a virus that causes cervical cancer, a promising development against a
cancer that each year kills 200,000 women world-wide.
The experimental vaccine just passed its first human safety test but has
years more testing ahead to prove if it does protect women against cancer.
Still, "the prospects for this vaccine are remarkably promising," said
Harald zur Hausen, a cervical cancer expert in Heidelberg, Germany. He
reviewed the research in Tuesday's Journal of the National Cancer Institute.
Until a vaccine becomes reality, a widely available virus test is highly
effective at telling which of some two million American women with
inconclusive Pap smears each year need further cancer exams -- and who can
relax, says a second study in the journal.
Digene Corp.'s virus test is "a very good option," NCI chief researcher
Diane Solomon said. Not everyone needs virus testing, Dr. Solomon stressed.
Most U.S. women with cervical cancer didn't get yearly Pap smears, which are
remarkably successful at catching precancerous cells in time to prevent
cancer. But when that exam isn't conclusive, Digene's test may help those
women decide if they need a biopsy, or, by ruling out viral infection,
provide "excellent reassurance" that they're healthy and should continue
just regular Pap testing.
Digene, based in Gaithersburg, Md., develops and sells biotechnology-based
diagnostic tests.
Human papillomavirus, or HPV, is a sexually transmitted virus that infects
some 40 million Americans. There are more than 80 strains, the vast majority
symptomless and harmless. But some strains cause cervical cancer, including
HPV-16, considered the riskiest and the one the experimental vaccine
targets.
Cervical cancer strikes 400,000 women world-wide every year, including
almost 13,000 U.S. women. The global toll is much higher because women in
developing countries can't afford those $25 Pap smears, so doctors there are
hoping anxiously for a vaccine.
NCI researcher Douglas Lowy and colleagues created a vaccine against HPV-16
that showed promise at preventing infection in animals. A Phase 1 safety
testing in 72 healthy people found no serious side effects.
Most participants' blood developed 40 times more virus-fighting antibodies
after vaccination than do people naturally infected with HPV. Those are
"sky-high levels," and "the higher the immune response, the more likely it
is that you will get protection," Dr. Lowy said.
To prove if the vaccine prevents HPV-16 infection and consequently reduces
cancer, NCI researchers plan to begin studying thousands of women next year
in Costa Rica, where cervical cancer is far more prevalent. The study will
take as many as eight years -- and even if it succeeds, doctors must develop
vaccines against other cancer-causing HPV strains, too, Dr. Lowy cautioned.