Vaccine may prevent virus-associated squamous intraepithelial lesions in young women
WEDNESDAY, May 19 (HealthDay News) -- Vaccination with the AS04-adjuvanted HPV-16 and HPV-18 vaccine is associated with significantly reduced abnormal cytology diagnoses in young women, according to research presented this week at the annual meeting of the American College of Obstetrics and Gynecology in San Francisco.
Mark G. Martens, M.D., of Oklahoma State University in Tulsa, and colleagues from the HPV PATRICIA Study Group studied 9,319 women ages 15-25 who received the HPV-16 and HPV-18 vaccine and 9,325 controls who received hepatitis A vaccine at zero, one, and six months. They collected cervical samples every six months for HPV DNA typing and performed gynecologic and cytopathologic examinations every 12 months.
The researchers found that vaccine efficacy for preventing high-grade squamous intraepithelial lesions, low-grade squamous intraepithelial lesions, and atypical squamous cells of undetermined significance associated with HPV-16 and HPV-18 was 57.3 percent, 67.2 percent and 56.3 percent, respectively. Irrespective of HPV type found on cervical sampling, they also found that efficacy rates for preventing high-grade squamous intraepithelial lesions, low-grade squamous intraepithelial lesions, and atypical squamous cells of undetermined significance were 40.6 percent, 14.3 percent, and 8.4 percent, respectively.
"This suggests the potential public health and cost benefits of the vaccine," the authors conclude.
Abstract- Martens
More information