Cervical intraepithelial neoplasia or cancer after HPV vaccination: a review of the literature

Abstract

Introduction. This literature review focuses on examining whether there are studies documenting the emergence of CIN or CC among pre-vaccinated women who were initially HPV naïve, with emphasis on whether genotyping was conducted upon diagnosis. Methods. This study provides a literature search of available research found in either PubMed or EMBASE. In order to discover relevant studies, the proposed objective is subdivided into blocks to create a search string. In terms of inclusion criteria, the focus is on finding publications that are based on original research, women developing dysplasia or invasive carcinoma after HPV vaccination despite being HPV-naïve at the time of vaccination. The literature search yields four studies in total consisting of two randomized controlled trials, a retrospective cohort and a case-control study. Results. A total of 1208 cases of HPV infections, CIN or cancer are presented, however only 104 cases are linked to potential vaccination failure. Vaccination failure is associated with various factors such as primary or secondary vaccination failure. However, a definite explanation for why it occurs for each individual cannot be stated with certainty.