Researcher calls vaccine results "stunning" Diane Harper, M.D.,
M.P.H., was busy at her computer as usual one recent afternoon.
There was a palpable electricity in her small office, however.
The day before, The Lancet had published the results of an
international clinical trial she'd led, testing a vaccine
against two strains of human papillomavirus, HPV-16 and HPV- 18,
viruses that cause 70% of cervical cancer. Harper has studied
the HPV-cervical cancer connection for 20 years. Randomized:
"The results of this trial are actually stunning," Harper says.
The vaccine increased the body's immune response to the viruses
to 80% to 100%. Conducted between 2000 and 2003, the study
included 1,113 women aged 15 to 25 from the U.S., Canada, and
Brazil. In the double-blind, randomized trial, 560 received the
vaccine and 553 received a placebo. Participants got three
vaccinations over a period of six months and follow- up testing
for 27 months. "Among 'the perfect people,'" Harper says—that
is, women who got all three in