A study shows that a new vaccine might be almost 100 percent effective in preventing cervical cancer in women.
The vaccine, called GARDASIL, was developed by Merck and Co. Inc., and might be able to prevent cancer that is associated with the human papillomavirus, which also is known to cause genital warts.
The study was conducted with 12,000 women in 13 different countries. More than half of the women received GARDASIL while the other half received a placebo.
In the half that received GARDASIL, none developed the cancer that is associated with the virus types 16 and 18. In the placebo group, 21 got the virus.
These two types of the virus are the types that are tied to the disease and make up 70 percent of cervical cancer cases, said Deb Wambold, a spokeswoman for Merck and Co. Inc.
Merck and Co. Inc. has not submitted its findings about the drug to the Food and Drug Administration, so the company is not sure when GARDASIL will be on the market, Wambold said.
They are aiming to have their data compiled and submitted to the FDA by the end of the year, and after that, it is up to the FDA to approve the vaccine before it can be out in the public.
"If the FDA approves it, it would hopefully someday mean the elimination of cervical cancer," Wambold said.
Because the strains of the virus that cause cervical cancer don't mutate very much, if the vaccine proves to be effective, it might do a good job of eliminating cervical cancer completely, said Michele Fluck, professor of microbiology and molecular genetics at MSU.
The pharmaceutical companies wouldn't have to change the vaccine every year like they do with the flu and HIV vaccines, she said.
"Once you have found a vaccine that is effective, you can give it for a long time," she said.
Fluck also said the vaccine might be a good thing because the virus is responsible for the majority of all cervical cancer cases.
"Unlike other cancers, it is very clear that the virus plays a role," Fluck said.
But even though the research seems positive, Fluck said the sample of women studied seemed too small for her to get excited.
She thinks there needs to be a bigger sample studied to see how effective the vaccine really is.
"The news is always good at first, then there are complications," she said.
But the vaccine could help women protect themselves against the disease, which is "pretty rampant" in the United States, Olin Health Center Health Coordinator Dennis Martell said.
"Even very responsible women can still get this," Martell said.
The forms of the virus which GARDASIL prevents don't have obvious symptoms in men, which allows them to transmit it to a woman without even knowing they have it, Martell said.
"Even in a committed relationship where they have talked about things, one partner may not know they have it," Martell said.
The virus also is one of the most easily transmitted sexually transmitted infections, he said, because it only needs skin to skin contact to be transmitted.
This means it can be transmitted even when a couple uses a condom, he said.
Martell said cervical cancer affects the entire population, because once a person becomes sexually active, they can be exposed to the disease without knowing about it and then pass it on to others.
"I myself have talked to women who have had cervical cancer here at MSU," Martell said.
"It happens more than we want it to happen."
