Confirming cross-protection of bivalent HPV vaccine

Prophylactic human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccines have exceeded expectations in preventing infection with oncogenic HPV, the underlying cause of cervical cancer. Both the bivalent HPV vaccine and quadrivalent HPV vaccine contain virus-like particles that induce high-level antibody responses to HPV types 16 and 18, the two most oncogenic HPV types, which are responsible for 71% of cervical cancer cases globally.1 In the 11 years since their first licensure, the vaccines have been distributed globally in over 270 million doses and are demonstrably safe in population usage.2 The vaccines are remarkably effective in real-world prevention of targeted type HPV infection and high-grade cervical intraepithelial neoplasia (CIN; potentially pre-cancerous lesions, the target for detection and treatment in cervical screening programmes).3, 4 In The Lancet Infectious Diseases, Kimberley Kavanagh and colleagues5 confirm an initially unanticipated benefit of the bivalent vaccine: clinically important cross-protection against three further oncogenic HPV types (31, 33, and 45), detected in approximately 13% of cervical cancers globally.1

Ed Rybicki’s insight:
This is an important result: it’s been rumoured for years, but here’s proof that Cervarix – because that’s what they’re talking about – actually does protect against off-type HPVs. Which Gardasil appears not to do, BTW – probably a factor of the adjuvants used, which are alum for Gardasil and AS04 (=3-O-desacyl-4′- monophosphoryl lipid A (MPL) 50 micrograms adsorbed on aluminium hydroxide) for Cervarix.

Confirming cross-protection of bivalent HPV vaccine
Source: Virology News