Academic research described in the late 1980’s the causal association between human papillomavirus (HPV) and cervical cancer, later expanded to significant fractions of all other genital tract cancers in both genders as well as a proportion of the cancers of the oral cavity and oropharynx. Prophylactic phase III HPV vaccine trials have shown complete type specific vaccine efficacy against two H...

The immune system uses innate and adaptive immunity to recognize and combat foreign agents that invade the body, but these methods are sometimes ineffective against human papillomavirus (HPV). HPV has several mechanisms for avoiding the immune system. HPV infects, and multiplies in keratinocytes, which are distant from immune centers and have a naturally short lifespan. The naturally short life...

The rise in human papillomavirus (HPV)-associated head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC) has elicited significant interest in the role of high-risk HPV in tumorigenesis. Because patients with HPV-positive HNSCC have better prognoses than do their HPV-negative counterparts, current therapeutic strategies for HPV⁺ HNSCC are increasingly considered to be overly aggressive, highlighting a ne...

Certain human papillomavirus (HPV) types are strongly associated with cervical cancer. Recently-described effective vaccines against these HPV types represent a great medical breakthrough in preventing cervical cancer. In Malaysia, the vaccine has just received regulatory approval. We are likely to face similar barriers to implementing HPV vaccination as reported by countries where vaccination ...

Vaccination to prevent human papillomavirus (HPV)-related infection leading to cancer, particularly cervical cancer, is a major public health breakthrough. There are currently two licensed HPV vaccines, both of which contain recombinant virus-like particles of HPV types 16 and 18 (which account for approximately 70 % of cervical cancer). One vaccine also protects against HPV types 6 and 11, whi...

Human papillomavirus (HPV) is widely known as a cause of cervical cancer (CC) and cervical intraepithelial neoplasia (CIN). HPVs related to cancer express two main oncogenes, i.e. E6 and E7, considered as tumorigenic genes; their integration into the host genome results in the abnormal regulation of cell cycle control. Due to their peculiarities, these oncogenes represent an excellent target fo...

The HPV L1 VLP vaccines are immensely important developments in public health and the benefits that they promise are immense, offering the opportunity to prevent, in the long term, 80% of cervical cancers, 60% of vulval cancers and 80% of anal cancers in women. In the short to medium term they will prevent at least 90% of genital warts and have a major impact on the incidence of high grade CIN,...

Genital human papillomavirus (HPV) infection with both low- and high-risk types is common, but most infections resolve as a result of a cell-mediated immune response. Failure to induce an effective immune response is related to inefficient activation of innate immunity and ineffective priming of the adaptive immune response; this defective immune response facilitates viral persistence, a key fe...

Clinical trials for prophylactic human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccines have shown overwhelmingly positive results. It is expected that with good coverage of the vaccine, 70% of cervical cancers will be prevented, as will a proportion of other HPV-related anogenital diseases. Issues that will require careful consideration will include: whether males and females should be vaccinated; the durability...

Human papillomavirus (HPV) infection is the cause of squamous cell carcinoma of the uterine cervix. This causative relationship has provided the rationale and incentive for development of a prophylactic vaccine. Such a vaccine, if found to be effective, could reduce the need for cervical cancer screening and have a profound effect on the incidence of cervical and other anogenital cancers. This ...