Vaccine Could End Cervical Cancer for Good

CERVICAL cancer could be virtually wiped out by a new vaccine available by the end of next year.

Experts say it could save thousands of lives and end the need for smear tests.

The revolutionary treatment would involve giving young girls a course of three injections before they became sexually active.

This would boost their immune system against the human papilloma virus, which causes nearly all cervical cancers.

Trial results show that the vaccine, Cervarix, is effective against five different strains of the sexually-transmitted HPV, which together are responsible for 82 per cent of all cases of the disease.

Scientists from its manufacturer, GlaxoSmithKline, are working on modifying Cervarix in the hope that it will protect against all strains of HPV, effectively consigning cervical cancer to history.

Experts say crossing the 80 per cent threshold could also make it possible to scrap smear tests, which are a source of anxiety and discomfort for many women.

GlaxoSmithKline hopes to submit an application to Britain’s Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency next year, with the vaccine becoming available in late 2006 or early 2007. Cervical cancer is the second most common cancer in women under 35 and claims more than 1,100 lives a year in the UK.

Around 3,000 new cases are diagnosed annually and four out of ten victims die within five years.

Women aged from 20 to 64 are invited to undergo smear tests every three to five years to check for early signs of the disease but many women find the procedure discomforting.

When precancerous tissue or a small tumour is detected, doctors can usually treat it effectively with either radiotherapy or surgery.

In more serious cases, however, a hysterectomy may be required, leaving the patient unable to have children.

Earlier trials of Cervarix had shown that it protected against the two main strains of the virus, which account for 70 per cent of cancer cases.

The new results are another major step forward.

John Toy, medical director at Cancer Research UK, hailed the breakthrough as ‘very encouraging’ last night.

He said the results suggest it will be possible to offer greater protection with a single vaccine than previously thought potentially avoiding the need for separate injections for other HPV strains.

‘This would be much much better for women,’ he added.

Young girls would receive a series of three injections over a six month period, which would then be able to provide them with lifelong immunity.

But there is likely to be controversy over the age at which the injections should be given.

Scientists believe ten or 12 would be a sensible age, to ensure they are protected before they become sexually active.

But family groups have already raised fears that this could encourage girls to become sexually active well before the legal age of consent, 16.

There are more than 100 strains of HPV, of which around 15 can cause the type of damage that leads to cervical cancer.

It is such a common infection that at least 50 per cent of women are believed to be exposed to it at some point in their lives.

Some suffer genital warts as a result but in most cases there are no symptoms and women will not realise they have been infected.

The virus usually disappears within six months but in one or two per cent of cases it can cause the cell abnormalities which lead to cancer.

GlaxoSmithKline said the latest results, presented at the International Papilloma Virus Conference in the Canadian city of Vancouver were ‘very exciting’ but stressed that research was continuing.

British doctors at four ceningtres, including consultants attached to Cancer Research UK, are among those taking part in a huge international trial of Cervarix.

Industry analysts believe Cervarix could be worth as much as Pounds 2billion a year to GSK so the news on the vaccine sent its share price up by 8p yesterday.

The company is locked in a race with rival Merck, which is developing a similar vaccine and has also reported promisresults. Cervarix was initially designed to boost the immune system against the two most common HPV strains, against which it has already proved 100 per cent successful.

Preliminary data from a study of more than 700 women from 15 to 25, living in Canada, the U.S. and Brazil, have now shown that it also works against another three strains, which account for 12 per cent of cervical cancers.

A company spokesman said: ‘The findings are preliminary but very promising.

‘We anticipate hopefully filing in the EU and international markets in 2006 and it would then take six months or so for consideration to be given for regulatory approval.’ Scientists have found a type of protein that appears to play a crucial role in the process by which an embryo becomes implanted in the womb.

The study, reported in the journal Nature, could lead to treatments for some of the 20 per cent of infertility cases which are currently unexplained.

Ending the scourge?