UBC researchers have found that girls who received two doses of the human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine had immune responses to HPV-16 and HPV-18 infection that were not worse than the responses for young women who received three doses.
HPV infections cause nearly all cases of cervical cancer, which is the second most commonly diagnosed cancer in women worldwide. The study, published in the May 1 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), lends more plausibility to adopting reduced-dose schedules for the vaccine, which would lower barriers to global implementation.
Lead co-investigator Simon Dobson, UBC Clinical Associate Professor in the Department of Pediatrics and Clinical investigator at the Child & Family Research Institute, noted that more data on the duration of protection are needed before reduced-dose schedules can be recommended. For more information, click here.
