Two HPV types dodge all vaccines, posing ongoing cervical cancer risk
A Swedish study of women with cervical precancers found that two common cancer-causing HPV strains aren't covered by any current vaccine. While existing vaccines successfully prevent the HPV types they target, the discovery suggests vaccination strategies may need updating to protect against these uncovered variants and reduce future cervical cancer rates.
Originaltitel: Prevalence of the human papillomavirus (HPV) types among cervical dysplasia women attending a gynaecological clinic in Sweden
<p>Background</p><p>Human papillomavirus (HPV) is the main cause of cervical cancer. HPV-vaccines have led to a significant decrease in HPV-infections and related cancer cases. The estimation of the current HPV-prevalence and distribution of different HPV-types among women with cervical dysplasia is important for the future vaccination strategy.</p><p>Methods</p><p>By using a multiplexed bead-based immunoassay, we revealed the prevalence of 27 HPV-types in 168 dysplasia women aged 21–70 from Uppsala University hospital, Sweden.</p><p>Results</p><p>The prevalence of HPV in low-and high-grade squamous intraepithelial lesions (LSIL and HSIL, respectively) were 56.3% and 76.7%, respectively. The oncogenic HPV-types constituted 80.0%, and 97.1% among the HPV-positive LSIL and HSIL-groups, respectively, with HPV16 as the most prevalent type. We found a reduction in oncogenic HPV-types covered by the bi- and quadrivalent vaccines in the vaccinated HSIL-group, suggesting the effectiveness of the HPV-vaccine in preventing dysplasia caused by the covered HPV-types. Oncogenic HPV-types 39 and 59, not covered by any current vaccine have an important prevalence among patients with cervical dysplasia.</p><p>Conclusions</p><p>Oncogenic-HPV-types are highly prevalent among women with HSIL. The current vaccine presents effectiveness for reducing the covered HPV-types among dysplasia patients.</p>