Some Sanity on Merck's Gardasil from Dr. Reichman: Can a vaccine treat my existing HPV infection?

bigvince wrote:
On Aug 29, 10:44 pm, edgger wrote:
It has been estimated that 70% of the 250,000 - 290,000 women who die
of Cervical Cancer each year, could be saved by the Gardasil vaccine,
which protects against the HPV virus.
Estimated by whom and why use the word "could"?

As the vaccine has yet not been shown to prevent any grade 3 lessions
the best surrogate point for cancer and has only been shown to reduce
grade 2 lessions by 17% thats the way you talk.


Vince, you're comparing apples and oranges. The 17% is in women who have
already been exposed to HPV prior to the vaccine. In girls who have not
been exposed to the viruses yet, it is expected that the protection will
be much higher. In fact there was a 90-100% efficacy rate for each virus
during the licensing trials.

http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/PDF/rr/rr5602.pdf

Thanks for pointing out why it is so important that girls get the
vaccine *before* they get exposed to the viruses.

Thanks.

Jeff


This drugs effect on
cancer rates is unproven. Many experts are advising a wait and see
approach.

Thanks Vince
.

Myrl wrote:
On Aug 31, 5:08 am, bigvince wrote:

As the vaccine has yet not been shown to prevent any grade 3 lessions
the best surrogate point for cancer and has only been shown to reduce
grade 2 lessions by 17% thats the way you talk. This drugs effect on
cancer rates is unproven. Many experts are advising a wait and see
approach.



I kind of like the following article. . .

Cancer jab 'stops 75% of deaths'

Vaccinating all 12-year-old girls against the virus which causes most
cervical cancers could cut deaths from the disease by 75%, a study
suggests. GlaxoSmithKline's Cervarix jab targets two strains of the
human papillomavirus.

The firm's findings were presented at the International Papillomavirus
Conference, along with a study on rival jab Gardasil from Sanofi
Pasteur.

Gardasil was found to be effective on more strains of HPV than first
thought.

The idea of finally being able to prevent cases of cervical cancer
with a vaccine is extremely exciting

Dr Anne Szarewski, of Cancer Research UK

For the Cervarix research, a computer model was used to predict the
outcome of vaccinating all 12-year-old girls in the UK - a total of
376,385.

Applied to the whole of the UK on the basis of the latest cervical
cancer figures, it would mean 262 deaths each year, compared with the
current level of around 1,000.

The number of annual cases of the disease would also drop from 2,841
to 682.

The researchers admitted 100% coverage assumed in the study was
unrealistic, but said even if 80% were vaccinated, the number of
deaths would drop by 61%.

Cervarix works by targeting HPV 16 and HPV 18, the two most common
forms of the disease.

It has also been found to be effective at targeting some of the other
most common strains.

Competition

GSK is in fierce competition with Sanofi Pasteur, who are about to see
their vaccine, Gardasil, granted a European licence.

Cervarix is still being developed and will not reach European approval
stage for around another year.

The research into Gardasil, presented at the conference in Prague, the
Czech Republic and funded by Sanofi Pasteur, found it provided
protection against 85% of HPV strains responsible for cervical cancer
- up from 75% shown by previous studies.

Dr Nick Kitchin, medical director at Sanofi Pasteur, said the results
were "very promising".

Dr Anne Szarewski, clinical consultant at Cancer Research UK, said:
"HPV vaccination offers great promise in terms of reducing the number
of cases of cervical cancer and preventing deaths from it.

"Beyond the cases and the deaths, hundreds of thousands of women each
year in the UK suffer anxiety when they have an abnormal smear
result.

"The idea of finally being able to prevent cases of cervical cancer
with a vaccine is extremely exciting."

Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/h...th/5311598.stm


Published: 2006/09/04 09:44:27 GMT

Let's try some logic...

If the vaccine prevents those deaths, then the women did not ever
develop a grade 3 lesion.

On Aug 31, 5:47 pm, Mark Probert wrote:

Let's try some logic...

If the vaccine prevents those deaths, then the women did not ever
develop a grade 3 lesion.



Absolutely - That's what vaccines do, they PREVENT disease, so one
knows whether without the vaccine, that individual would have ever
developed the disease.

Ilena Rosenthal wants to focus on screenings and tests. . .But, that
would be because PREVENTION of HPV, through a vaccine, HAS NOT
happened. Ilena Rosenthal is looking for disease - not trying to
prevent it!

Another analogy would be if we asked the question, "I wonder if Johnny
would have contracted Measles, if he hadn't received the measles
vaccine?"

We know that kids by the millions got measles before the vaccine, and
that millions don't get it now!

Just as we know that 250,000 - 290,000 women die each year from
Cervical Cancer now, and hopefully, with a vaccine, we will be able to
save 70% of them, by preventing the HPV strains, that cause the
disease.

If we wait until AFTER a girl has contracted HPV, then according to
the studies, it may be too late to protect them from Cervical Cancer.

It has been estimated that 1 in 4 women have the HPV virus.