Papillomavirus vaccine looking positive after Phase I

Promising results have emerged from a two-year Phase I human clinical trial of an Australian-developed therapeutic vaccine targeting cervical cancer.

Although not yet announced by the trial's sponsor, CSL, the results have surfaced in a in a publicly-available abstract.

It states that CerVax 16, a human papillomavirus vaccine (HPV), showed itself to be safe and immunogenic in patients with the HPV16 virus type associated with cervical cancer. It may also reduce the load of HPV16 in infected cervical tissue.

Antibodies were induced by a single treatment in 24 patients given the active vaccine, according to the abstract. In 13 of 14 HPV16 patients, mean viral loads fell by more than half after treatment.

The Melbourne trial, which ended earlier this year, involves a new class of therapeutic HPV vaccine developed by Queensland's Centre for Immunology and Cancer Research (CICR).

CICR has also developed a preventative HPV vaccine which is now in Phase III trials sponsored by Merck under an agreement with CSL.

CICR's patents cover methods of developing non-infectious papillomavirus virus-like particles which could play an important role in preventing and treating cervical cancer.