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The quadrivalent human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine was released to much fanfare and political wrangling last year based on data from an early analysis of two giant industry-sponsored, blinded, placebo-controlled phase III trials. Updates from these ongoing studies have now been published.
More than 5000 women worldwide (age range, 16–24) were enrolled in the first study; about 27% had prevaccination evidence of genital infection with a vaccine serotype. After a mean follow-up of almost 3 years, the rates of vaccine-type vulvar, vaginal, and perianal lesions (including warts, precancerous lesions, and cancer) were significantly lower among vaccine recipients without evidence of prior infection, as were the rates of cervical intraepithelial n…