Prophylactic human papillomavirus vaccination and primary prevention of cervical cancer: issues and challenges

Two prophylactic human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccines have been recently approved: one quadrivalent and the other a bivalent vaccine. When administered in a three-dose course to HPV-naive individuals, both vaccines exhibited excellent safety profiles and were highly efficacious against targeted clinical endpoints in large-scale international phase III clinical trials. Where coverage has been high for the appropriate target population, a reduction of HPV-related diseases with the shortest incubation periods has already been seen. By March 2012, universal HPV vaccination had been introduced into national vaccination programmes in more than 40 countries, but only in a few low-income and middle-income countries. With the growing market for HPV vaccines and competition between manufacturers, negotiated prices are already beginning to decline although they still remain out of reach of many countries. The great majority of countries are struggling to reach a level of coverage that will have the most impact on cervical cancer rates. Increasing coverage and improving completion of the HPV vaccine schedule, particularly of sexually naive females, is now the most important public-health issue in HPV vaccine efforts. A clear strategy for integrating primary (HPV vaccination) and secondary (screening) cervical cancer prevention must be agreed as soon as possible. Several second-generation prophylactic vaccines are being developed with the aim of resolving some of the limitations of the two current HPV prophylactic vaccines.