THE CURRENT STATUS OF THERAPEUTIC HPV VACCINE

Cervical carcinoma is the second most common cause of cancer-related d eaths in women worldwide. Recurrences occur in 15% of the patients aft er optimal treatment of low-risk early-stage disease. Treatment result s of recurrent disease are relatively poor and for this reason new the rapeutic strategies are warranted. Viral infection with human papillom avirus seems to have an essential part in the aetiology of cervical ca rcinoma. Evidence for the assumption that cervical carcinoma, among ot her malignancies such as melanomas, renal malignancies and Kaposi sarc oma, are immunogenic is provided by the fact that these malignancies g row more rapidly in the presence of systemic immunosuppression. Sponta neous regression for these tumour types is also described and immunohi stochemical studies show extensive infiltrates in the tumour, consisti ng of immunocompetent cells, It is thus postulated that cellular immun ity, and mainly the T-cell system plays an important role in the antit umour defence in cervical carcinoma. This review describes the rationa le for the use of immunotherapy as treatment for cervical carcinoma as well as the results of recent developments in tumour immunology and i ts implications for the clinical use of immunotherapeutical approaches .