Genital Warts: Efficacy of Two Doses of HPV Vaccine

Lisen Arnheim Dahlström Associate Professor (Docent) Institutionen för medicinsk epidemiologi och biostatistik Department of Medical Epidemiology and Biostatistics Karolinska Institutet SwedenMedicalResearch.com Interview with:
Lisen Arnheim Dahlström
Associate Professor (Docent)
Institutionen för medicinsk epidemiologi och biostatistik
Department of Medical Epidemiology and Biostatistics
Karolinska Institutet Sweden

MedicalResearch.com: What are the main findings of the study?

Answer: The main finding, when studying HPV vaccine effectiveness against condyloma by dose level is that 3 doses offered the maximum protection, although 2 doses also offered a substantial protection.

MedicalResearch.com: Were any of the findings unexpected?

Answer: This study is an important complement to the clinical trials as they only have data on immunogenicity by dose level and not disease outcomes. Further, our population-based study may also be more generalisable to the more diverse populations actually getting vaccinated.

Still, the most important outcomes precancerous lesions and cervical cancer needs to be studied as well.

MedicalResearch.com: What should clinicians and patients take away from your report?

Answer: Clinicians and patients should stick to the recommended dose-schedule until other recommendations are made.

MedicalResearch.com: What recommendations do you have for future research as a result of this study?
Answer: There are still questions to be answered.

  • Will 3 doses still offer protection when measured with longer follow-up time?
  • Will the results be different or the same when we will study girls who received the vaccine within the school vaccination program i.e they are younger (10-12 years (better immunity?)) than those in our study, higher vaccination coverage and herd immunity may be achieved?
  • Further, what will the result be when we study outcomes such as precancerous lesions of the cervix?

Citation:

Herweijer E, Leval A, Ploner A, et al. Association of Varying Number of Doses of Quadrivalent Human Papillomavirus Vaccine With Incidence of Condyloma. JAMA. 2014;311(6):597-603. doi:10.1001/jama.2014.95.

 

 

 

Last Updated on November 10, 2014 by Marie Benz MD FAAD

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