#StopAVN. Good news in the Australian Doctor newsletter yesterday. (Unless youre an anti-vaccine crank.) (KMcL) Vax effective for recurrent cervical cancer 18 August, 2014 Michael Woodhead HPV vaccine can be offered to women who have already had high-grade CIN lesions because it protects against recurrent disease, an expert says. By preventing re-infection with oncogenic HPV, vaccines such as Gardasil might halve rates of recurrence of cervical disease, said Dr Julia Brotherton of the National HPV Vaccination Program Register. Writing in the Australia and NZ Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, Dr Brotherton (pictured) said research had recently shown that rates of recurrence in women treated for cervical disease were 48% lower for CIN1+, 65% lower for CIN2+ and 74% lower for CIN3+ in vaccinated compared with unvaccinated women. “This suggests that ‘recurrence’ is often in fact subsequent disease due to infection in adjacent areas of genital epithelium, disseminated from either the primary productive lesion/s or the same or a new male partner,” she wrote. This and other studies suggested some women had an inability to clear persistent oncogenic HPV infection and would benefit from secondary vaccination. The high antibody levels from the vaccine seem to prevent new areas of epithelial infection — and thus disease — due to dissemination from existing sites of HPV infection or from new HPV exposure. “It is therefore reasonable to discuss the potential benefits of vaccination with women postdiagnosis/treatment of high-grade CIN,” Dr Brotherton suggested. However, women should be counselled that vaccination will not treat existing areas of infection or disease nor prevent all future HPV infections and that therefore attendance at follow-up and future screening remain critical,” she added.
Posted on: Mon, 18 Aug 2014 22:22:10 +0000
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