title: Vaccines against cervical cancer.
abstract: Cervical cancer and precancerous lesions of the genital tract are a major threat to women's health worldwide. Although the introduction of screening tests to detect cervical cancer and its precursor lesions has reduced overall cervical cancer rates in the developed world, the approach was largely unsuccessful for developing countries, primarily due to a lack of appropriate infrastructures and high costs. Annually, 470,000 cervical cancer cases are diagnosed worldwide, of which 80% occur in developing countries. Despite advances in treatment of cervical cancer, approximately half of the women afflicted with the disease will die. Over 20 years of dedicated research has provided conclusive evidence that a subset of human papillomaviruses are the aetiological agents for cervical cancer. Finding a viral origin for this disease provided the basis to fight cervical cancer using prophylactic or therapeutic vaccination. Both vaccine approaches are reviewed here, with an emphasis on recent clinical data.
authors.affiliation: Merck & Co., Inc., 770 Sumneytown Pike, West Point, Pennsylvania 19486, USA. kathrin_jansen@merck.com
authors.forename: Kathrin U
authors.initials: KU
authors.lastname: Jansen
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000818:Animals; D019496:Cancer Vaccines / Q000627:therapeutic use; D002213:Capsid / Q000276:immunology; D002294:Carcinoma, Squamous Cell / Q000276:immunology / Q000517:prevention & control / Q000628:therapy / Q000821:virology; D002417:Cattle; D002648:Child; D002986:Clinical Trials as Topic; D003906:Developing Countries; D004285:Dogs; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D016233:Immunotherapy, Active; D008297:Male; D027383:Papillomaviridae / Q000235:genetics / Q000276:immunology / Q000472:pathogenicity; D030361:Papillomavirus Infections / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000276:immunology / Q000628:therapy / Q000821:virology; D015995:Prevalence; D011323:Primates; D011634:Public Health; D011817:Rabbits; D002583:Uterine Cervical Neoplasms / Q000276:immunology / Q000517:prevention & control / Q000628:therapy* / Q000821:virology; D014614:Vaccines, Synthetic / Q000627:therapeutic use; D014765:Viral Vaccines / Q000627:therapeutic use; D002578:Uterine Cervical Dysplasia / Q000276:immunology / Q000628:therapy / Q000821:virology
chemical_list: D019496:Cancer Vaccines; D014614:Vaccines, Synthetic; D014765:Viral Vaccines