(Press-News.org) PHILADELPHIA – A therapeutic vaccine targeting human papillomavirus type 16 (HPV16) induced regression in high-grade precancerous cervical lesions, according to the results from a phase II clinical trial published in Clinical Cancer Research, a journal of the American Association for Cancer Research.
“Nearly all premalignant cervical lesions and cervical cancers are caused by HPV infection, with HPV16 implicated in the majority of cases,” said Refika Yigit, MD, principal investigator and oncological gynecologist at University Medical Centre Groningen in the Netherlands.
In those with grade 3 cervical intraepithelial neoplasia (CIN3), cells are already on the path toward malignancy. If left untreated, approximately one-third of these cases progress to cervical cancer within 10 years and roughly half within 30 years, Yigit explained.
“The main purpose of our trial was to investigate whether our therapeutic vaccine—Vvax001— could offer a potential alternative treatment to the standard-of-care loop excision, which is frequently associated with complications,” Yigit added.
The Vvax001 vaccine is a modified version of the Semliki Forest virus that cannot replicate and produces the oncogenic E6 and E7 proteins that are expressed exclusively by HPV16-infected cells.
In the phase II trial, 18 patients with HPV16-positive CIN3 received three doses of Vvax001 three weeks apart, and then were routinely monitored via colposcopy before a final colposcopy-guided biopsy at 19 weeks post-immunization.
Nine of the 18 patients experienced regression—six to low-grade dysplasia and three with complete regressions and no signs of dysplasia. Lesion size was significantly reduced in all but one of the patients, and these reductions were evident within a month of finishing vaccination. The nine patients whose disease did not regress received loop excision surgery, though no residual disease was found in four of these patients, suggesting the additional time to surgery might have allowed for full lesion eradication, according to the authors.
“To the best of our knowledge, this response rate makes Vvax001 one of the most effective therapeutic vaccines for HPV16-associated CIN3 lesions reported to date,” said Yigit. “If confirmed in a larger trial, our results could mean that at least half of the patients with CIN3 might be able to omit surgery and avoid all its possible side effects and complications.”
In the standard-of-care setting, HPV clearance is linked to lower risk of recurrence, and Yigit said her team expects the same here. Ten of the 16 patients evaluated cleared HPV16, including all nine of those whose disease regressed. Two patients whose disease did not regress also cleared HPV16; however, their lesions harbored other HPV strains.
After a median follow-up of 20 months, none of the patients had recurrences.
Limitations of the study include limited follow-up time, small sample size, and lack of a control group for spontaneous regression due to ethical concerns.
This study was supported by the Dutch Cancer Society (KWF) and ViciniVax. Yigit declares no conflict of interest.
END
A therapeutic HPV vaccine could eliminate precancerous cervical lesions
2025-01-24
ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:
Myth busted: Healthy habits take longer than 21 days to set in
2025-01-24
We’re nearly one month into 2025, but if you’re struggling to hold onto your New Year’s resolution, stay strong, as University of South Australia research shows that forming a healthy habit can take longer than you expect.
In the first systematic review of its kind, UniSA researchers found that new habits can begin forming within about two months (median of 59–66 days) but can take up to 335 days to establish.
It’s an important finding that could inform health interventions to ...
Development of next-generation one-component epoxy with high-temperature stability and flame retardancy
2025-01-24
Two-component epoxies, which require mixing resin and curing agent before use, often suffer from issues such as mixing ratio errors, limited working times, and inconsistent curing. Additionally, they must be used immediately after mixing, leading to wasted residue. To address these challenges, one-component epoxies have gained attention. One-component epoxies come pre-mixed, making them easy to use, reducing processing time, and ensuring consistent quality without mixing. In particular, using latent curing agents allows curing to be triggered only under specific conditions (e.g., heat or UV exposure), significantly improving storage stability. However, ...
Scaling up neuromorphic computing for more efficient and effective AI everywhere and anytime
2025-01-24
Neuromorphic computing—a field that applies principles of neuroscience to computing systems to mimic the brain’s function and structure—needs to scale up if it is to effectively compete with current computing methods. In a review published Jan. 22 in the journal Nature, 23 researchers, including two from the University of California San Diego, present a detailed roadmap of what needs to happen to reach that goal. The article offers a new and practical perspective toward approaching the cognitive capacity of the human brain with comparable form factor and power consumption.
“We ...
Make it worth Weyl: engineering the first semimetallic Weyl quantum crystal
2025-01-24
An international team of researchers led by the Strong Correlation Quantum Transport Laboratory of the RIKEN Center for Emergent Matter Science (CEMS) has demonstrated, in a world’s first, an ideal Weyl semimetal, marking a breakthrough in a decade-old problem of quantum materials.
Weyl fermions arise as collective quantum excitations of electrons in crystals. They are predicted to show exotic electromagnetic properties, attracting intense worldwide interest. However, despite the careful study of thousands of crystals, most ...
Exercise improves brain function, possibly reducing dementia risk
2025-01-24
A study led by scientists at Rutgers University-New Brunswick has shown that specialized cells involved in how the body responds to insulin are activated in the brain after exercise, suggesting that physical activity may directly improve brain function.
A study, published in Aging Cell, a journal focused on the biology of aging, indicates that therapies targeting this insulin action may be developed to offset or even prevent dementia progression.
“We believe this work is important because it suggests exercise may work to improve cognition and memory by improving the abilities of insulin to act on the brain,” ...
Diamonds are forever—But not in nanodevices
2025-01-24
Ultrawide-bandgap semiconductors—such as diamond—are promising for next-generation electronics due to a larger energy gap between the valence and conduction bands, allowing them to handle higher voltages, operate at higher frequencies, and provide greater efficiency compared to traditional materials like silicon. However, their unique properties make it challenging to probe and understand how charge and heat move on nanometer-to-micron scales. Visible light has a very limited ability to probe nanoscale properties, and moreover, it is not absorbed ...
School-based program for newcomer students boosts mental health, research shows
2025-01-24
The first randomized control trial of the school-based intervention called Supporting Transition Resilience of Newcomer Groups (STRONG) shows significant reductions in depression, anxiety and behavior problems among refugee and immigrant students. The study, funded by the National Institute of Mental Health, was co-led by Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago and Loyola University, in partnership with the Chicago Public Schools (CPS). Results were published in the American Journal of Community Psychology. Key findings are summarized ...
Adding bridges to stabilize quantum networks
2025-01-24
While entangled photons hold incredible promise for quantum computing and communications, they have a major inherent disadvantage. After one use, they simply disappear.
In a new study, Northwestern University physicists propose a new strategy to maintain communications in a constantly changing, unpredictable quantum network. By rebuilding these disappearing connections, the researchers found the network eventually settles into a stable — albeit different — state.
The key resides in adding a sufficient number of connections to ensure the ...
Major uncertainties remain about impact of treatment for gender related distress
2025-01-24
Major uncertainties remain about the impact of puberty blockers and gender affirming hormone therapy on children and young people with gender related distress (gender dysphoria), making it impossible to determine conclusively whether they help or harm, find two pooled data analyses of the available evidence, published online in the Archives of Disease in Childhood.
The findings echo those of the Hilary Cass review of gender identity services in the NHS, published last April. This concluded that the evidence for the use of puberty blockers and masculinising and feminising hormones for gender related distress—psychological distress caused by a mismatch between birth sex and gender ...
Likely 50-fold rise in prevalence of gender related distress from 2011-21 in England
2025-01-24
The prevalence of psychological distress caused by a mismatch between birth sex and gender identity, formally known as gender dysphoria, likely rose 50-fold nationwide between 2011 and 2021, suggests an analysis of primary care data in England and published online in Archives of Disease in Childhood.
This means the condition is still uncommon, with fewer than 1 in 200 17-18 year olds affected, but levels of concurrent anxiety, depression, and self harm are high. And access to timely care is a live issue for young people and their families, a second feedback study shows.
Most previously ...