Preventive and therapeutic HPV vaccines

Cervical cancer is the second leading cause of cancer deaths in women worldwide and HPV infection is responsible for the development of this cancer. Effective vaccination against HPV represents an opportunity for the control of cervical cancer. The newly licensed preventive HPV vaccine in the US, Gardasil, has both a good safety profile and clinical efficacy against the HPV genotypes from which it was derived. However, this vaccine can only protect against up to 70 to 80% of cervical cancer and also lacks therapeutic efficacy against established HPV infection and HPV-associated lesions. Thus, the future of HPV vaccination needs to focus on the development of a new generation of preventive and therapeutic vaccines that are capable of protecting against most cervical cancers.