MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
Dr Julia Brotherton
Victorian Cytology Service, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
Dr Elizabeth Crowe
The University of Queensland, School of Population Health, Brisbane, Australia
NHS Borders, Department of Public Health, Melrose, Scotland, UK
Prof. David Whiteman
Group Leader / Department Coordinator
QIMR Berghofer Medical Research Institute
Royal Brisbane Hospital, QLD 4029
MedicalResearch.com: What are the main findings of the study?
1. We conducted a case-control study in which we retrieved the HPV vaccination histories of young Australian women who were notified to the
Pap smear registry with high-grade cervical lesions or with other types of cervical lesions, and compared them with the vaccination histories of women whose Pap smears showed only normal cytology.
2. We found that women with high grade cervical lesions were significantly less likely than women with normal cytology to have received 3 doses of the quadrivalent HPV vaccine, equivalent to a vaccine effectiveness of 46%.
3. The vaccine effectiveness among 15-19 year old women was even higher at 57%. We believe this reflects the fact that
HPV16 causes an even higher proportion of high grade disease in young women due to its higher oncogenicity and shorter latent period.
4. The HPV vaccine had 34% effectiveness against other cervical lesions (i.e. those not proven to be high grade lesions on histology).
5. We also observed that 2 doses of the vaccine were 21% effective in preventing both high grade lesions and other grade lesions.
(more…)