Two-dose HPV Vaccine Equal to Three-doses

In 2016, The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices recommended adolescent women aged 11 to 12 years old receive two doses of the human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine, six months or more apart, for preventive purposes, against viral-causing cancers and infections.

A recently completed study published in The Journal of Infectious Diseases supports the CDC recommendation.

“These results support the CDC recommended a two-dose schedule for HPV vaccination in adolescent girls,” the researchers wrote.

“Availability of both of these two-dose schedules, at 6-month and 12-month intervals, makes it more convenient for the subject, the prescriber and mass vaccination campaigns.”

The CDC reports that teens and young adults who start the series later, at ages 15 through 26 years, will continue to need three doses of HPV vaccine to protect against cancer-causing HPV infection.

Most human papillomavirus infections clear naturally, but persistent infections lead to cervical cancer.

According to the World Health Organization, cervical cancer is one of the most common cancers among women worldwide. Approximately 528,000 new cervical cancer cases and 266,000 deaths occurred in 2012 worldwide.

Human papillomavirus 16 and 18 are the most common among high-risk HPV types and are responsible for approximately 70% of cervical cancer cases.

These researchers previously published similar results in 2016 among the same cohorts at 1 month after the last vaccine dose. They concluded at the time that the two-dose regimen could make HPV immunization more efficient.

“Reduced dose schedules of HPV vaccines may facilitate vaccination implementation and reduce cost, allowing for higher vaccination coverage and potentially more girls being protected from cervical cancer,” the researchers said.

The Food and Drug Administration has approved:

• Merck's Gardasil
• Merck’s Gardasil 9

The CDC Vaccine Price List provides current vaccine contract prices and lists the private sector vaccine prices for general information.

This study was a phase IIIb, multicenter, open-label, randomized trial (ClinicalTrials.gov NCT01381575) conducted in 5 countries (Canada, Germany, Italy, Taiwan, and Thailand) between 2011 and 2014.

Disclosure: Huang reports receiving grants through his institution from GlaxoSmithKline, consultancy fees for serving on the HPV expert board and payment for educational representation from GlaxoSmithKline. The researchers included: Li-Min Huang, Thanyawee Puthanakit, Chiu Cheng-Hsun, Tang Ren-Bin, Tino Schwarz, Angelo Pellegrino, Susanna Esposito, Louise Frenette, Shelly McNeil, Paolo Durando, Paul Rheault, Carlo Giaquinto, Michael Horn, Karl Ulrich Petry, Klaus Peters, Toma Azhar, Peter Hillemanns, Stephanie De Simoni, Damien Friel, Suryakiran Pemmaraju, Marjan Hezareh, Florence Thomas, Dominique Descamps, Nicolas Folschweiller, Frank Struyf.