CLINICAL IMPACT AND IMPLICATION OF HUMAN PAPILLOMAVIRUS (HPV) IN CERVICAL CANCER

Abstract

The social and economic evolution of the world’s population in the last years has brought changes also in the
prevalence of some diseases. Lately, viral infections have attracted specialists’ interest due to the unexpected
complications they cause. Until not so long ago incriminated only for the development of warts, the Human
papillomavirus infections have been found also to induce cellular abnormalities, such as the koilocytes, which in their
turn indicate low grade squamous intraepithelial lesions (HSIL). According to the latest assessments worldwide, the HPV
is responsible for 70% of the cervical cancer cases. The extensive research studies conducted by specialists came to know
success when the HPV vaccines were launched on the market. In the summer of 2006, the first vaccine able to stop the
expansion of HPV-induced cervical cancer came out, GARDASILTM, produced by Merck and Co., Whitehouse Station,
New Jersey. It is a tetravalent vaccine (generates immunity against the oncogenic viral types 16 and 18, and the nononcogenic types 6 and 11). In our drugstores, one can find SILGARD, efficient and safe, providing 5-year protection, but
not eradicating the effects of the viral infections acquired prior to vaccination. Apparition of the vaccine does not exclude
cytological screening, which remains the most effective way to detect early a potential cancer of the cervix.