Aussie cure for cervical cancer

By Adam Cresswell
October 08, 2005

AN Australian scientist has developed the world's first cancer vaccine - a drug with the potential to save the lives of tens of thousands of women each year by preventing cervical cancer.

The vaccine - based on work started 15 years ago by Ian Frazer, director of the Centre for Immunology and Cancer Research at the University of Queensland - received a huge boost yesterday when researchers reported a 100 per cent success rate in final trials.
The results mean it could be on sale in Australia by the end of next year, after its developer, Melbourne drugmaker CSL, revealed the trial found it gave recipients 100 per cent protection against two strains of human papillomavirus, or HPV.

Together, the two strains cause about 70 per cent of cervical cancers.

The success rate has surprised and delighted Australian and overseas experts, who say the vaccine could potentially save 70 per cent of the 250,000 lives lost each year around the world to cervical cancer - especially in developing countries that lack pap-smear screening programs.

Australia has about 700 cases of cervical cancer diagnosed every year, and about 270 deaths from the disease.

The Phase III trial - the last step before a licensing application - involved 12,000 women in 13 countries.

It found the vaccine prevented all high-grade cervical pre-cancers and non-invasive cervical cancers associated with HPV types 16 and 18.

Already CSL is looking at a financial bonanza from the vaccine, to be called Gardasil, which is thought likely to generate worldwide sales of between $US1billion ($1.3 billion) and $US4billion.

Another winner will be Professor Frazer, whose invention made the vaccine possible, with some peers suggesting he could be in line for a Nobel Prize.

Fourteen years ago, Professor Frazer and his team used genetic engineering to unlock the secret of how to produce in sufficient quantities fragments of the HPV virus.

The dead fragments, called "virus-like particles", are put into the vaccine and trick the immune system into thinking the virus itself is present. The body responds by making antibodies that then protect the patient if the real virus later appears.

Gerry Wain, a cervical cancer specialist at Sydney's Westmead Hospital and director of the NSW Cervical Screening Program, who was not involved in the vaccine's development, said the results were "amazing" and had exceeded all expectations.

"You are looking at saving millions of women's lives - if that doesn't deserve a Nobel prize, what does?" he said.

Gardasil is designed to be given in three doses over six months, which data suggests will provide immunity for at least 10 years.

Most women who develop cervical cancer acquire the HPV virus in the first 10 years after they become sexually active. However, a booster shot to extend immunity beyond the initial 10 years may later be recommended.

The vaccine is designed to be given before women become sexually active, but it could still bring benefits for older women.

Even men could benefit, as it protects against two other types of HPV responsible for genital warts.

Professor Frazer told The Weekend Australian from New York yesterday he was "obviously delighted and surprised by the 100 per cent effectiveness".

"With most vaccines, you think you're doing a pretty good job if the vaccine turns out to be 90 per cent effective," he said.

"It's great for Australian science that something that we've developed here is going to have a global impact in the way that this vaccine should have."

He said the vaccine would have the biggest impact in developing countries that did not have pap-smear screening programs.

"In countries like Australia, where we have a very good pap-smear program, the good news for women is not so much that they will be able to stop doing the pap smears - because they won't - but rather that they are very much less likely to have an abnormal pap smear which will need something done about it."

CSL will market the vaccine in Australia and New Zealand but will receive royalties for overseas sales from its international distributor, the drug giant Merck.

It is thought royalties will be worth tens of millions of dollars a year to CSL.

CSL shares soared yesterday to a high of $38.80 before closing at $37.46, up 96c, giving the company a market value of $6.8 billion. A rival vaccine, Cervarix, is being developed by drug giant GlaxoSmithKline and is likely to become available shortly after Gardasil.

Link Here