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
. 2025 Dec;21(1):2497608.
doi: 10.1080/21645515.2025.2497608. Epub 2025 Jun 9.

Impact of human papillomavirus vaccines in the reduction of infection, precursor lesions, and cervical cancer: A systematic literature review

Diane M Harper  1 , José A Navarro-Alonso  2 , F Xavier Bosch  3   4   5 , Jorma Paavonen  6 , Margaret Stanley  7 , Peter Sasieni  8 , María Yébenes  9 , Néstor Martínez-Martínez  9 , Ángela Rodriguez  10 , Andrea García  10 , Laura Martín-Gomez  10 , Laura Vallejo-Aparicio  10 , Helena Carrión  10 , Yara Ruiz García  10
Affiliations

Impact of human papillomavirus vaccines in the reduction of infection, precursor lesions, and cervical cancer: A systematic literature review

Diane M Harper et al. Hum Vaccin Immunother. 2025 Dec.

Abstract

Cervical cancer is a preventable disease for which vaccines are available to provide long-term protection against human papillomavirus (HPV) infection. This systematic literature review (SLR) was performed to summarize the efficacy, effectiveness, impact, duration of protection, and safety profile of four licensed HPV vaccines against infection, precursor lesions, and cervical cancer. Data was extracted from published reports. The search resulted in 1,136 studies, of which 54 were selected for this review. A substantial decrease in the prevalence of oncogenic HPV types, high-grade cervical lesions, and cervical cancer was found in countries with high vaccine coverage and routine vaccination programs. Post-licensure studies of HPV vaccines have reported high efficacy, effectiveness, and health impact across settings and age groups. Studies emphasize vaccination in younger age groups. These findings may inform future discussions about HPV vaccination strategies.

Keywords: HPV vaccine; Human papillomavirus; cervical cancer; cervical intraepithelial neoplasia; systematic literature review.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

Xavier Bosch declares receiving consulting fees and payment or honoraria for lectures, presentations, speaker bureaus, manuscript writing or educational events, as well as support for attending meetings and/or travel once a year from MSD. Xavier Bosch also declares receipt of HPV testing kits and reagents from RMS. Peter Sasieni declares receiving grants from Cancer Research UK, NIHR and Yorkshire Cancer Research as well as a contract with GRAIL. He also declares receiving consulting fees from GRAIL for being a Scientific Advisory Board member and from Roche for a Scientific Advisory role. Peter Sasieni also received a supply of Gardasil-9 for the NOVEL trial on which he is the lead statistician from MSD. Margaret Stanley declares having acted as a consultant for GSK and MSD vaccines. Yara Ruiz was a GSK employee when the study was conducted and holds financial equities in GSK. Laura Vallejo-Aparicio and Laura Martín-Gomez are GSK employees and hold financial equities in GSK. Andrea García is a GSK employee. Angela Rodriguez and Helena Carrión were GSK employees when the study was conducted. María Yébenes and Néstor Martínez are Pharmacoeconomics & Outcomes Research Iberia (PORIB) employees. PORIB is a consultant company specialized in economic evaluation of health technologies which has received unrestricted financial support for development of the present study. Diane Harper declares receiving fees for being a consultant on health economics for Roche and for being the president of NAPCRG and funding from the National Cancer Institute (P30CA046592-29-S4 and the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences: UL1TR001070). José Antonio Navarro-Alonso and Jorma Paavonen declare no financial and non-financial relationships and activities and no conflicts of interest. Andrea García, Angela Rodriguez, Diane Harper, Helena Carrión, Laura Vallejo-Aparicio, Laura Martín-Gomez, Margaret Stanley, María Yébenes, Néstor Martínez, Peter Sasieni, Xavier Bosch and Yara Ruiz declare no other financial and non-financial relationships and activities.

Figures

None
Graphical abstract
Figure 1.
Figure 1.
PRISMA flow diagram.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. World Health Organization Cervical Cancer . 2024. [accessed 2022 Nov 11]. https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/cervical-cancer.
    1. Sung H, Ferlay J, Siegel RL, Laversanne M, Soerjomataram I, Jemal A, Bray F.. Global cancer statistics 2020: GLOBOCAN estimates of incidence and mortality worldwide for 36 cancers in 185 countries. CA Cancer J Clin. 2021;71(3):209–23. doi: 10.3322/caac.21660. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Arbyn M, Weiderpass E, Bruni L, de Sanjosé S, Saraiya M, Ferlay J, Bray F. Estimates of incidence and mortality of cervical cancer in 2018: a worldwide analysis. Lancet Glob Health. 2020;8(2):e191–e203. doi: 10.1016/S2214-109X(19)30482-6. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Arbyn M, Antoine J, Mägi M, Smailyte G, Stengrevics A, Suteu O, Valerianova Z, Bray F, Weiderpass E. Trends in cervical cancer incidence and mortality in the Baltic countries, Bulgaria and Romania. Int J Cancer. 2011;128(8):1899–1907. doi: 10.1002/ijc.25525. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Lei J, Ploner A, Elfström KM, Wang J, Roth A, Fang F, Sundström K, Dillner J, Sparén P. HPV vaccination and the risk of invasive cervical cancer. N Engl J Med. 2020;383(14):1340–1348. doi: 10.1056/NEJMoa1917338. - DOI - PubMed

Publication types

MeSH terms

Substances