Brazilian Study Leads to Cervical Cancer Vaccine

Research scientists have developed an experimental treatment to protect women against cervical cancer.  A new study found the treatment kept almost everyone tested safe from infections that lead to the disease.  The medical publication “Lancet Oncology” reported on the study. 

Experts say more than two hundred thousand women die from cervical cancer every year.  These deaths are most common in developing countries. 


The main cause of cervical cancer is the human papilloma virus, or H.P.V.  This is a common virus that people can give each other through sexual activity. 


H.P.V. usually is harmless and disappears in healthy women.  But, if it remains in the body, the virus greatly increases the chances of cervical cancer.


The cervix is part of the female reproductive system.  It is the opening at the end of the uterus.  H.P.V. infections are responsible for genital warts.  These growths on reproductive organs can lead to cervical cancer.           


Cervical cancers develop slowly, usually over a period of ten or twenty years.  There are tests that can find the disease early enough to save a woman’s life.  A common test is called a Pap smear.  Laboratory workers examine cells under a microscope. 


Luisa Villa of the Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research in Brazil organized the new study.  It involved five hundred fifty-two women from Brazil, Europe and the United States. 


About half of them were given repeated injections of the treatment, or vaccine.  The other half received a harmless substance, or placebo. 


Researchers observed the two groups for three years.  During that period, the women received repeated Pap spears.  H.P.V. tests also were performed.  


The researchers say the vaccine was effective in preventing infection from four forms of H.P.V.  Doctor Villa and her team found the vaccine was ninety percent effective in preventing the majority of viral infections. 


They also say it was one hundred percent effective in preventing genital warts and cervical lesions, which can lead to cancer.


More studies will be done to test the effectiveness of the vaccine.  One drug-maker, Merck, is expected to ask the United States Food and Drug Administration to approve the vaccine later this year.  If approved, it may be offered as early as next year. 


VOA

Tags:

You May Also Like

IMF Chief Celebrates Brazil’s Early Payment

Rodrigo de Rato, Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), issued a statement ...

Walk-In Motel

"Men still have a need for a parallel life and for expressing their impulses ...

Brazilian Indians Will Keep Land of the Fox and Mountain of the Sun

Eight of the eleven Supreme Court judges in Brazil voted in favor of the ...

A Morte e a Morte de Quincas Berro Dágua

Jorge Amado By Jorge Amado Jorge Amado, who died August 6, 2001, four days ...

US Can’t Trample on Human Rights of Others to Protect Itself, Brazil President Tells UN

Brazilian president Dilma Rousseff proposed today, in New York, at the opening of the ...

US Buys 20 War Planes from Brazil for Flight Training and Reconnaissance in Afghanistan

Brazil’s aircraft manufacturer Embraer will sell its A-29 Super Tucano aircraft to the US ...

Brazil’s Major Newspapers Lost National Relevance. If They Ever Had It

The current political scenario marked by the Senate crisis and suspicions regarding the management ...

Ten Days into 2006 and Brazil’s Surplus Already Over US$ 1.2 Billion

Brazil’s foreign trade surplus for the first ten days of January stands at US$ ...

365 Cameras in Rio Carnaval Watching for Muggers, Drunks and Peeers

Rio’s Carnaval this year has Big Brother all over town watching what you do. ...

Russia, the 2018 Host, More Prepared for World Cup than Brazil, Says FIFA

Preparations for the 2014 World Cup in Brazil have come under attack from FIFA ...