HPV Vaccines Offer Additional Protection

More good news about the HPV vaccine. Both Cervarix and Gardasil have been found to be effective against addition HPV strains:

The [Cervarix] vaccine is used against HPV 16 and HPV 18, the commonest cause of the disease.

However, in trials the vaccine has also been effective against two other HPVs, 45 and 31, the third and fourth most common strains.

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Yesterday the conference heard of new results from a rival vaccine, Gardasil, made by Merck and to be marketed in the UK by Sanofi Pasteur.
Gardasil is designed to protect against HPV 6, 11, 16 and 18 and the results reported yesterday suggest that it is also effective against 31, 45, 52 and 58.

Margaret Stanley, professor of epithelial biology at the University of Cambridge, said: "These data are very exciting as they show that Gardasil may potentially provide some protection against additional cancer-causing human papillomavirus strains to those specifically targeted by the vaccine.

"This means there is the potential that it could protect against strains which are responsible for approximately 85 per cent of cervical cancers."