The Gardasil Story: A Vaccine to Prevent Cervical Cancer

Human Papillomavirus (HPV) is a potent carcinogen strongly linked with cervical cancer, but which also causes other benign and malignant diseases such as genital warts, and vulvar, vaginal, penile, and head and neck cancers.

HPV Types 6, 11, 16, and 18 cause the preponderance of HPV disease burden, being responsible for ~70% of cases of cervical cancer and 90% of genital warts.

Over the past 10-15 years, a remarkable story of the development of a quadrivalent HPV vaccine has led to the first vaccine specifically targeted to prevent cervical cancer. This vaccine has shown strong prophylactic efficacy in young women and adolescents and has also been studied in other populations, such as adult women and males.

In this presentation, the clinical efficacy and safety of the quadrivalent HPV vaccine will be reviewed, and future implications will be discussed.