October 14, 2015 – Cervical Lesions

Podcast: Download (Duration: 1:02 — 1.4MB)

Subscribe: RSS

Anchor lead:  A new vaccine can clear up precancerous lesions of the cervix, Elizabeth Tracey reports

A vaccine has been used to clear up precancerous lesions of the cervix caused by human papilloma virus, or HPV, a Johns Hopkins study led by Cornelia Trimble, has shown. Trimble says the vaccine was also administered in a unique way.

Trimble: We did this trial in women with cervical high grade dysplasia that are cause by HPV 16 or 18.  Those two HPV types together account for at least 70 percent of cervical cancers.  In addition to being a really good vaccine, we give it in the muscle just like a regular vaccine, but then right after the injection the patients got a little shock of electricity. What that did was it made the cells near the injection site a little bit permeable, so the vaccine was taken up much more efficiently.  :32

Trimble says women who respond can then avoid more invasive treatments with potential loss of fertility.  At Johns Hopkins, I’m Elizabeth Tracey.