HPV 16 & 18 – Oral Cancer News

Vaccine clears some precancerous cervical lesions in clinical trial

Source: www.sciencedaily.comAuthor: Mark L Bagarazzi, MD et al. Scientists have used a genetically engineered vaccine to successfully eradicate high-grade precancerous cervical lesions in nearly one-half of women who received the vaccine in a clinical trial. The goal, say the scientists, was to find nonsurgical ways to treat precancerous lesions caused by HPV. "Every standard therapeutic option for women with these lesions destroys part of the cervix, which is particularly relevant for women of childbearing age, who may then be at risk for preterm birth due to a weakened cervix," says Cornelia Trimble, M.D., professor of gynecology and obstetrics, oncology, and pathology at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, and first author of the new report, which appears online Sept. 17 in The Lancet. "A vaccine able to cure precancerous lesions could eventually be one way women can avoid surgery that is invasive and can also harm their fertility." High-grade cervical lesions, termed CIN2/3, occur most often in women 40 or younger, according to Trimble, a member of Johns Hopkins' Kelly Gynecologic Oncology Service and Kimmel Cancer Center. Because the lesions can progress to cancer, they are usually removed by surgery, freezing or laser. The procedures are successful in removing the precancerous areas in approximately 80 percent of women, says Trimble. Less troublesome lesions, called low-grade dysplasia, are usually monitored by physicians rather than immediately removed because they pose less of a risk for cancer and usually regress on their own. For the study, the scientists used a vaccine, originally developed [...]

Charlotte Parker2015-09-21T17:41:30-07:00September, 2015|Oral Cancer News|

FDA Approves Vaccine That Covers More HPV Strains

Source: webmd.comAuthor: E J Mundell, HealthDay Reporter WEDNESDAY, Dec. 10, 2014 (HealthDay News) -- The U.S. Food and Drug Administration last Wednesday approved a new vaccine with expanded protection against the human papillomavirus (HPV), by far the leading cause of cervical and certain other cancers. The agency said that Gardasil 9 can shield users against nine strains of the virus, compared to the four strains covered by Gardasil, the Merck & Co. vaccine approved in 2006. Merck also makes Gardasil 9. "Gardasil 9 has the potential to prevent approximately 90 percent of cervical, vulvar, vaginal and anal cancers," the FDA said in an agency news release. "Vaccination is a critical public health measure for lowering the risk of most cervical, genital and anal cancers caused by HPV," Dr. Karen Midthun, director of the FDA's Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research, said in the release. "The approval of Gardasil 9 provides broader protection against HPV-related cancers." The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention currently recommends the HPV vaccine for boys and girls at age 11 or 12, so they are protected before being exposed to the sexually transmitted virus. One other HPV vaccine, Cervarix, was also approved by the FDA in 2009. Cervarix is made by GlaxoSmithKline and protects against two HPV strains strongly linked to cancer, HPV 16 and 18. According to the FDA, the approval of Gardasil 9 was based on a clinical trial involving more than 14,000 girls and women aged 16 to 26 who were not infected with HPV at [...]

Charlotte Parker2014-12-16T17:11:06-07:00December, 2014|Oral Cancer News|

Recent Study reveals over two thirds of Americans harbor HPV

Source: medscape.comAuthor: Pam Harrison More than two thirds of healthy US residents harbor at least 1 type of human papillomavirus (HPV), most of which are undetectable by widely used commercial screening kits, a large genetic analysis shows. However, the relevance of this is at present unclear, commented an expert not connected with the study. The study identified 109 different HPV types in tissue samples taken from 103 men and women whose tissue DNA was made available through the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Human Microbiome Project. Only 4 individuals carried either HPV 16 or 18, considered to be among the most oncogenic HPV types and associated in particular with cervical cancer. "There are more than 170 HPV types, so it's a very heterogeneous virus, and current methods only detect about 20 to 30 of them," senior investigator Zhiheng Pei, MD, PhD, associate professor of pathology, New York University School of Medicine, in New York City, told Medscape Medical News. "[Because] non-risk or low-risk HPV types have been very understudied, we would like to see if these non-cancer-causing HPV types play a role in cancers other than cervical cancer or, conversely, if HPV infection is in fact beneficial in an asymptomatic population," Dr. Pei commented. The study was presented at the annual meeting of the American Society for Microbiology in Boston, Massachusetts. Shotgun Sequencing For the study, researchers decoded DNA assembled by a technique called shotgun sequencing. In this method, researchers fragment long DNA strands into short fragments and then randomly sequence each [...]

Charlotte Parker2014-05-29T09:45:58-07:00May, 2014|Oral Cancer News|

Throat Cancer and HPV – the researcher

6 February, 2013 12:26PM AEDT By Carol Duncan (ABC Local) Source: abc.net.au Assoc Prof Karen Canfell is a researcher with the Lowy Cancer Research Centre at the University of NSW. HPV is her area of expertise. What does she want us to know about HPV and the vaccination program? CAROL DUNCAN: Karen, your area of expertise is human papilloma virus and I understand there's not just one but 100 or more? ASSOC PROF KAREN CANFELL: That's right, there's a large number of types HPV that have been implicated in cancer but it's really two of those types that are responsible for the vast majority of cancers, HPV 16 & 18 and those types are the ones that are included in the vaccine that is now available to us. CAROL DUNCAN: I guess this is the point of this series this week is that we now have another cancer which is, in essence, preventable. ASSOC PROF KAREN CANFELL: Yes, I think what we're seeing with HPV is an incredible success story in cancer prevention. This started with the vaccination of girls and women in Australia. Because HPV has a very important role in cervical cancer and, in fact HPV is responsible for virtually all cervical cancers, the types we just mentioned (types 16 & 18) are responsible for about 70% of those cancers. Five years ago, in 2007, we had the implementation of the National HPV Vaccination Program in girls and women in Australia and that's really had incredible effects [...]

Charlotte Parker2013-02-06T13:02:21-07:00February, 2013|Oral Cancer News|

HPV types 16/18 adjuvant vaccine shows long-term efficacy

Source: DocGuide.com Author: Jenny Powers NICE, France -- May 11, 2010 -- The human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine (types 16 and 18) AS04-adjuvanted vaccine shows a sustained immune response, as demonstrated by high levels of neutralising antibodies, up to 8.4 years after first vaccination, researchers said here at the 28th Annual Meeting of the European Society for Paediatric Infectious Diseases (ESPID) on May 6. Cecelia Maria Roteli-Martins, MD, Hospital Leonor Mendes de Barros-Secretaria d Saude de São Paulo, in São Paulo, Brazil, headed an international team that evaluated the efficacy and immunogenicity of the HPV-16/18 AS04-adjuvanted vaccine by measuring neutralising antibody levels in a follow-up analysis yearly for up to 8.4 years post vaccination Healthy women aged 15 to 25 years who were DNA-negative for oncogenic HPV types, 16 and 18 with normal cytology at baseline received the vaccine (n = 560) or placebo (n = 553). A total of 223 women who were vaccinated with the active vaccine returned for extension studies, as well as 213 of the women who were given placebo. In these women, HPV-16 and 18 antibodies were measured annually. Cervical samples were taken every 6 months and gynaecological and cytopathological examinations were performed every 12 months. All (100%) of the women in the trial have remained seropositive for HPV-16 and -18 antibodies. After 2 years of follow-up, 5 incident infections and 1 infection of low grade squamous intra-epithelial lesion or higher (LSIL) associated with HPV 16 and 18 occurred in the placebo group. The vaccine efficacy [...]

Charlotte Parker2010-05-13T07:58:42-07:00May, 2010|Oral Cancer News|

Trial shows cancer vaccine success

Source: Channel4news.com Author: Staff A vaccine against a sexually transmitted disease which causes most forms of cervical cancer can protect older women, according to a new study. Women aged from 24 to 45 who have not already been infected with the human papilloma virus (HPV) can be protected by the HPV vaccine, according to an article published in the medical journal The Lancet. HPV is a sexually transmitted disease which is responsible for most forms of cervical cancer. Trials were conducted with over 3,000 women in the relevant age group who had not been infected with HPV. Half were given a placebo and half were given a vaccine which protects against four strains of HPV. The researchers found that four cases of infection occurred in the vaccine group compared to 41 in the placebo group – meaning the vaccine was 91 per cent effective against all four virus strains. Looking at HPV 16 and 18 only, which are responsible for 70 per cent of cases of cervical cancer, four cases occurred in the vaccine group compared with 23 in the placebo group, meaning the vaccine was 83 per cent effective. When trials were conducted with women who had already been infected with HPV, the vaccine was only 30 per cent effective. The report's author, Dr Nubia Muñoz, therefore suggested that the public health benefit of vaccinating the older age group could potentially be less cost-effective than vaccinating teenagers who were less likely to have been sexually active. Currently teenage [...]

Charlotte Parker2009-06-02T11:14:02-07:00June, 2009|Oral Cancer News|

Glaxo’s cervical cancer vaccine faces US battle

Source: Forbes.com Author: Linda A. Johnson New studies show GlaxoSmithKline PLC's vaccine Cervarix blocks the virus that causes cervical cancer, but if it wins approval for U.S. sales, it will face an uphill battle against Gardasil, which has owned the market here for three years. Cervarix, Glaxo's vaccine against human papilloma virus or HPV, already is approved in more than 90 other countries, but has been held up by delays in the United States. Several years ago, the British drugmaker was in a neck-and-neck race with rival Merck & Co., Gardasil's maker, to be first on the U.S. market, but it lost when Gardasil got approved in June 2006. Late in 2007, the Food and Drug Administration declined to approve approve Cervarix. GlaxoSmithKline submitted a new application on March 30 that included final data from an 18,000-woman study recently completed. Final results from that study and two others are being presented this weekend at a conference in Sweden on papillomavirus. FDA is expected to decide whether to approve Cervarix within several months. If it does, analyst Erik Gordon, a professor at the University of Michigan's Ross School of Business, said doctors who have prescribed Gardasil for a few years may see no reason to switch - unless GlaxoSmithKline convinces them its product is much more effective or has fewer side effects. Both vaccines target the two types of HPV that cause about 70 percent of cervical cancers, types 16 and 18, and data indicate both are about 98 percent effective. But Merck also [...]

Charlotte Parker2009-05-08T18:53:28-07:00May, 2009|Oral Cancer News|