¹Department of Pathology, University of Cambridge, Tennis Court Road, Cambridge CB2 1QP, UK

Correspondence: Professor M Stanley, E-mail: mas@mole.bio.cam.ac.uk

Received 3 January 2007; Revised 13 February 2007; Accepted 23 February 2007; Published online 20 March 2007.

Abstract

Virtually all cases of cervical cancer and its precursor intra-epithelial lesions are a result of infection with one or other of a subset of genital human papillomaviruses (HPVs), suggesting that prevention of HPV infection by prophylactic vaccination would be a highly effective anticancer strategy. Two HPV L1 virus-like particle vaccines have been developed, a quadrivalent HPV16/18/6/11 product and a bivalent HPV16/18 product; both have been shown to be highly immunogenic with a good safety profile and 100% efficacy against HPV16/18-related high-grade cervical intra-epithelial neoplasia (CIN2/3), implying that they will be effective at preventing HPV16/18-related cervical cancer.