Therapeutic Vaccination Targeted at Cervical Precancer

Although surgical ablation is standard treatment for cervical intraepithelial neoplasia (CIN) 2/3, spontaneous regression does occur in untreated women — and animal models support the potential of immunotherapeutic approaches. In a manufacturer-supported trial, investigators randomized 167 women with CIN 2/3 to receive intramuscular injections (followed by electroporation) of plasmid expressing E6 and E7 proteins encoded by human papillomavirus (HPV)–16 and HPV-18 or placebo.

Among women who received all three study doses, 50% of plasmid recipients verses 31% of placebo recipients experienced histopathologic regression to normal or CIN1 (P=0.03). The vaccine elicited humoral as well as cellular immune responses, both of which were greater am…