By: Janice C. Kelly
28 October 2010
A massive multinational cervical cancer study described as “the benchmark for all time” has confirmed that 8 human papillomavirus (HPV) types cause more than 90% of all cervical cancers worldwide, and that HPV 16, 18, and 45 cause 94% of cervical adenocarcinomas.
The study was published online October 15 in the Lancet Oncology.
The research team, led by Silvia de Sanjose, MD, from Institut Català d’Oncologia-Catalan Institute of Oncology in Barcelona, Spain, concludes that “HPV types 16, 18, 31, 33, 34, 45, 52, and 58 should be given priority when the cross-protective effects of current vaccines are assessed and for formulation of recommendations for the use of second-generation polyvalent HPV vaccines.”
Maurie Markman, MD, vice president of patient oncology services and national director for medical oncology at Cancer Treatment Centers of America, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, told Medscape Medical News: ” I suspect the next generation of cervix cancer vaccines will specifically include each of the 8 HPV types noted in this paper, since this will cover 90% of the cases of cervix cancer.”
Excerpt from the abstract:
FUNDING: Spanish grants from Instituto de Salud Carlos III, Agència de Gestió d’Ajuts Universitaris i de Recerca, Marató de TV3 Foundation, and unrestricted grants from GlaxoSmithKline Biologicals, Sanofi Pasteur MSD, and Merck.
Read the entire abstract here.
(Note from SaneVax: This is exactly the type of ‘study’ the public can expect from a pharmaceutically funded effort. Please note that no mention was made of the fact that HPV alone does not cause cancer in over 90% of those infected. This ‘study’ only determined that several genotypes of HPV were present in cancerous tissue. There was also no mention of what other risk factors for developing cervical cancer may, or may not, have been represented in the patients from the test group. Until such time as HPV is clearly established as a causal agent and not just another risk factor for cervical cancer, it is our opinion that ‘studies’ like this are nothing more than scare tactics.)
