HPV Vaccine Reduces Abnormal Pap Test Results

Birmingham, AL

A significant drop in abnormal Pap test results was seen after girls and women were given a human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine to prevent cervical cancer, according to a researcher at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB), Birmingham, Alabama.

These findings, presented on March 10 at the annual meeting of the Society of Gynecological Oncologists in Tampa, Florida, show the HPV vaccine (trade name Gardasil) appears to prevent the development of cell changes that lead to cervical disease. In testing, the vaccine reduced abnormal Pap test results by 43% compared with women not given the vaccine. The 43% reduction was for tests that found precancerous changes called high-grade squamous intraepithelial lesions (HSIL) more than 3 years after women were given the vaccine.

The HPV vaccine also reduced other abnormal Pap results, including milder premalignant cell changes, by 16% to 35% compared with women not given the vaccine. These findings are not definitive that the HPV vaccine prevents cancer; however, they do signal that the vaccine will spare thousands of women a diagnosis of cell abnormality or malignant changes that may lead to more tests and possibly surgery.

"Clearly the vaccine's benefits include something that can be appreciated by women and daughters fairly quickly," said Warner Huh, MD, Associate Professor, UAB Division of Gynecologic Oncology, and the physician chosen to present the data. "This is a positive first sign, and it will take many more years to know definitively if the vaccine prevents cancer."

The results are a compilation of 3 separate trials involving more than 18,000 women aged 16 to 26 years in the United States, Europe, and Asia. All test subjects had normal Pap smear readings at the start of the trial.

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