Therapeutic HPV vaccines

Abstract

Despite important progress in prevention and treatment of precancerous dysplasia and cancer, cervical cancer remains a public health problem around the world. The development of dysplastic lesions and cervical cancer depends on the presence of human papillomavirus (HPV) expressing viral oncogenes E6 and E7. These virus foreign antigens are very attractive as candidates in the development of therapeutic vaccines. Different vaccine strategies have been developed based on live vectors (viral or bacterial), proteins, peptides, DNA or dendritic or tumor cells. To date, many clinical trials were conducted with candidate vaccines, primarily targeting precancerous lesions and cancers. Although the strategies used have allowed, for the most part, to induce T cell response in patients, the success of therapeutic vaccines has so far been relatively limited. The vaccination strategy should be redefined in the future with an application to earlier stages of the disease and the use of combined strategies. Therapeutic vaccines are likely to be integrated in a global treatment of precancerous lesions and cancer of the cervix.