The value of HPV vaccination

Persistent infection with high-risk types of human papillomavirus (HPV) causes almost all cervical cancers. Two HPV vaccines have been licensed for prophylactic vaccination in many countries and have been highly effective at preventing infection by the vaccine-targeted HPV types. Two recent papers describe the four-year, end-of-study data from a large-scale trial of Cervarix, a vaccine that targets the most prevalent oncogenic HPV types 16 and 18, in women aged 15–25 years1, 2. The results indicate that the vaccine has high efficacy against cervical precancer development and is cross protective against nonvaccine oncogenic HPV types. We asked four experts to comment on this trial and the implications for vaccination and cervical cancer screening policies. © 2012 Nature America, Inc. All rights reserved.