Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2010 Nov 23;1(107):1000107.
doi: 10.4172/2157-7560.1000107.

Review of Gardasil

Diane M Harper  1 , Stephen L Vierthaler, Jennifer A Santee
Affiliations

Review of Gardasil

Diane M Harper et al. J Vaccines Vaccin. .

Abstract

Human papillomavirus (HPV) is necessary for the development of cervical cancer. Cervical cancer is the second most common cancer in women worldwide but 80% occurs in developing countries, not countries with Pap screening programs. Pap screening programs in industrialized countries have reduced the incidence of cervical cancer to 4-8/100,000 women. HPV vaccines may be a promising strategy for cervical cancer in women without access to screening programs. In industrialized countries, the benefit of HPV vaccines focuses on individual abnormal Pap test reduction not cancer prevention. The focus of this review is to cover the side effects of Gardasil in perspective with the limited population benefit cervical cancer reduction in countries with organized Pap screening programs. In addition, information about Gardasil benefits, risks and unknowns for individual patient decision making for vaccination is presented. Gardasil offers protection against CIN 2+ lesions caused by HPV 16/18 and against genital warts caused by HPV 6/11 for at least 5 years. Combining Gardasil with repeated cytology screenings may reduce the proportion of abnormal cytology screens and hence reduce the associated morbidity with the subsequent colposcopies and excisional procedures.

Keywords: Adverse effects; Cervical cancer; Duration of efficacy; Gardasil; HPV vaccine immunology.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

Conflict of Interest

JAS: Nothing to disclose. SLV: Nothing to disclose.

DMH: The institutions at which I have conducted HPV vaccine trials received funding to support clinical trials on the vaccines discussed herein from Merck and GlaxoSmithKline.

I have also received honoraria for speaking and for participation on advisory boards from Merck and GlaxoSmithKline.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Prevalence of HR HPV infections by age group.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. National Toxicology Program . NTP 11th Report on Carcinogens. Rep Carcinog. 2005;11:1–A32. - PubMed
    1. Zur Hausen H. Papillomaviruses in the causation of human cancers - a brief historical account. Virology. 2009;384:260–265. - PubMed
    1. Parkin DM. The global health burden of infection-associated cancers in the year 2002. Int J Cancer. 2006;118:3030–3044. - PubMed
    1. de Sanjosé S, Diaz M, Castellsagué X, Clifford G, Bruni L, et al. Worldwide prevalence and genotype distribution of cervical human papillomavirus DNA in women with normal cytology: a meta-analysis. Lancet Infect Dis. 2007;7:453–459. - PubMed
    1. Khan MJ, Castle PE, Lorincz AT, Wacholder S, Sherman M, et al. The elevated 10-year risk of cervical precancer and cancer in women with human papillomavirus (HPV) type 16 or 18 and the possible utility of type-specific HPV testing in clinical practice. J Natl Cancer Inst. 2005;97:1072–1079. - PubMed

LinkOut - more resources