Mandatory HPV / cervical cancer vaccine moves forward in Iowa

Only two steps remain in Iowa's legislative quest to require insurance companies to provide coverage of vaccinations for the human papillomavirus, the major cause of cervical cancer.

The proposed bill was passed by an 81-16 vote of the Iowa House last week and referred to the Senate Human Resources Committee. All 16 House members opposing the measure were Republicans, six of them women.

Tuesday morning, the Senate committee, chaired by Assistant Majority Leader Joe Bolkcom, D-Iowa City, approved the measure and sent it on to the full Senate floor. The bill will need to pass through the Senate -- something that is considered likely -- and will need to be signed by Gov. Chet Culver. The law would take affect for third-party payment provider contracts, policies or plans delivered, continued or renewed in the state after Jan. 1, 2009.

"Cervical cancer is preventable," Bolkcom said. "The HPV vaccine is the best defense. This bill will ensure that health insurers make the HPV vaccine available and affordable to Iowa women. I expect the Senate to approve this bill soon." More >>

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Cervical cancer vaccine put on fast track for review by FDA

Elkhorn, CO

Merck & Co on Wednesday said U.S. regulators have granted a priority review for the company's application to expand marketing of its Gardasil cervical cancer vaccine to women aged 27 through 45.

The designation means that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration is expected to make its decision on the marketing application within 6 months, rather than within the agency's typical 10-month review period.

Gardasil, one of Merck's fastest-growing products, is currently approved for girls and women nine through 26 years of age. It works by preventing infection with four sexually transmitted strains of the Human Papillomavirus that cause most cases of cervical cancer. More >>

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GSK Cervical Cancer HPV Vaccine Cervarix Reported Effective for More Than Six Years

Falls Church, VA

GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) has new data that it says shows that its experimental cervical vaccine Cervarix protects women against the four most common types of the human papillomavirus known to cause cervical cancer for nearly six and a half years.

Over this period, which is the longest for protection reported to date, Cervarix “showed 100 percent efficacy in preventing precancerous lesions due to cancer-causing virus Types 16 and 18 and also provided substantial protection against infection caused by virus Types 31 and 45,” the company said.

The data came from an extended follow-up analysis of 776 women ages 15–25 in the U.S., Canada and Brazil who had participated in an initial efficacy study of the vaccine. Nearly 100 percent of the women in the study maintained high levels of antibodies against virus Types 16 and 18 at all times for close to six and half years, GSK said.

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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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Study: HPV DNA Test better than Pap Smear for cervical cancer screening

Denver, CO

It's a relatively new test with new research backing up its benefits and if you fit the right profile you may be able to only have a Pap smear once every three years.
It's the HPV DNA test used to detect cervical cancer-- a cancer that is diagnosed in about 10,000 women in the U.S. each year.
A Canadian study found out of 10,000 women the HPV test correctly found 95 percent of the lesions that could develop into cervical cancer while the Pap test found 55 percent

But that doesn't mean women can say so long to the swabbing of the cervix, you still have the Pap test. The HPV is just another test using the same sample from the Pap.

Dr. Chris Carey at Denver Health Medical Center said the HPV test can also provide women peace of mind. "If Pap smear is mildly abnormal and HPV is negative, then a woman doesn't have to have a coloposy or biopsy." More >>

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Gardasil vaccine now offered for boys, young men

Normal, IL

Approximately 3,700 women die from cervical cancer every year, making it the second leading cause of cancer deaths among women around the world.

To prevent the risk of cervical cancer, which is caused by the Human Papillomavirus, millions of girls and young women in the United States get vaccinated with Gardasil before becoming sexually active. Gardasil is recommended for girls before sexual intercourse.

By 2009, Gardasil could be approved for use by boys and young men as well.

"A lot of folks would say, 'Let's not force everybody to take [vaccinations] because not everybody is sexually active, and we don't want to send the message that everybody is,'" ISU health educator James Almeda said. "I think what I would explain to folks is, 'Maybe your son or daughter isn't [sexually active], but there could be some point in time where they choose to be, and we're not going to always be able to protect them.'"

"Because we know that HPV is so prevalent, we know there is a good chance that they could be exposed to it at some point in their life, and so why not use [vaccinations] as a safety precaution," Almeda said. More >>

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Cervical cancer vaccine plan wins preliminary approval in Missouri Senate

Kansas City, MO

Thousands of parents would receive information about the availability of a cervical cancer vaccine under a plan that received preliminary approval Tuesday in the Senate.

The proposal, sponsored by Democratic Sen. Jolie Justus of Kansas City, would require state health officials to distribute the information to the parents of all girls entering the sixth grade in Missouri public schools.

The plan represents a major compromise between health advocates seeking to reduce the incidence of cervical cancer and religious conservatives who feared that the vaccine could lead to increased promiscuity among teen-agers.

The original proposals introduced last year would have required the immunization of 11-year-old girls against the human papilloma virus, just as children are now required to be vaccinated against polio, mumps, tetanus and other diseases.

U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved the vaccine in 2006, finding that it was effective in blocking four strains of the virus that cause some 70 percent of cervical cancers and 90 percent of genital warts. But because the papilloma virus is transmitted by sexual contact, many conservatives objected to the treatment. More >>

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